Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control
by Tribal Matriach
Summary: Season 1.A mixup of signals leads to incorrect assumptions WARNING ! Rape and violence!
1. Chapter 1

**1. Sam**

**10:30 hours**

She could have cried, she wouldn't, but she could have. Everything she had expected had been broken into bits, shattered by a single look, a couple of words and the air of negativity surrounding the table.

She should have known better, after all these years she REALLY should have known better. Bitter disappointment had flooded her, and why had she bothered to act in that way? It really wasn't her, GOD! She should have KNOWN!

**Earlier that morning…**

She had arrived a bit late, actually, she was on time, but the security detail she had to wait for took their sweet time in getting to her, (like she didn't know the way!!) and by the time she had travelled down one elevator, swapped to the second at 11 and gone down to the bottom level, she was faced with a choice, rush and risk looking guilty and flushed, or walk fast, be a tiny bit late, and look relaxed and confident. The latter was always going to be the better option, even in a non military situation, a telling off for slight tardiness was always better than showing weakness. She slowed ever so slightly and mentally went over what she knew, what she wanted to happen in there and what would be happening later.

At last she was looking forward to working in an environment that suited her, front line technology, enough excitement to last for ages generated in a few seconds, and the main goal of all the ambitions she had nurtured for the last couple of years, her whole existence didn't depend on it, but her sanity just might.

She held no illusions, no false modesty, she knew she was clever, 'brilliant' was the word most often used, when tested she had been in the top 0.1 of the population, but over the last few years she had become a bit disillusioned by her 'peers'. The military version was like going through high school again, being looked at as if she had two heads, the scientific 'peers' seemed to resent the fact that she wore a uniform. Here, at the bottom of an abandoned missile silo, she may just find the people that she could respect, understand and, above all, trust!

"…Carter's our expert on the Stargate" 'Uncle' George's voice came to her

"Where's he transferring from?" She heard from the room she was heading to. The voice was low, and somehow…lazy… as if he wasn't really interested in the answer to the question he had asked

She took a deep breath, "SHE is transferring from the Pentagon" she said as she entered the room and did a quick scan of its occupants. Never even blinking at 'Uncle' George, she focussed on the man whose reports she had almost absorbed through her skin, the one who may have some of the answers she needed, the one she… actually she wasn't sure WHAT she wanted/needed/expected from this man, but she just knew he was different!

She saluted and reported to him, as her direct superior and then the first shoe dropped, the Major to the left, from her point of view, quickly chimed in with a derogatory sneer in his voice "But of course you go by Sam"

Here we go, the usual reaction of the testosterone gang, she could see his thoughts as if he had a neon sign on his forehead! She had to be either the helpless, 'I need a man to protect my cute backside, but I want to be respected for joining the military' type… or the butch 'I'll kick your arse if you mess with me', lesbian type, to that sort of man there was no other option! Well, the former stereotype was just out of the question, and so she slipped into the role of the latter, noticing that the General at the head of the table had a slight smile on his lips as she gave as good as she got verbally.

She wondered at the Colonels silence, he was allowing men under his command to verbally spar with her, and 'seemed' to be taking absolutely no notice of what was happening at all! Why was he taking apart his pen?

General Hammond, (she must remember to give him his full title and the respect he had earned, even in private, he was now her commanding officer, even if it was only going to be for a few days) stopped the discussion on action figures (don't call them dolls Sam, the boys may start to cry) and handed the meeting back to the man who had stood, head down, waiting for them to finish.

"Thank you. Those of you on your first trip through the Stargate, you should be prepared for what to expect." She knew she was the main person this was directed to, but there were a couple of others at the table who it could have included too, she jumped in.

"I've practically memorized your report from the first mission. I'd like to think I've been preparing for this all my life." Damn! Oh for Gods sake, could she have sounded any more like a rookie? She made herself out to be a groupie! DON'T elaborate! No matter how sincere, she had to tone it down again, the Colonels blank look seemed to again give Kawalsky permission to lash into her.

"I think what the Colonel is saying is… have you ever pulled out of a simulated bombing run in an F-16 at 8-plus Gs?" Was this planned? How often had these men worked together? She had heard of the 'unspoken' communication that developed in military units, but her experiences so far had not been on such a personal level. Piloting a plane just didn't get you THAT close to your crew. However she had an honest answer to that question that she thought may shake the cocky man up a bit

"Yes" Stop there girl! Don't elaborate, never offer additional ammo to the enemy

The shock on the faces of everyone but the General, even his aide, was all she could wish for, but O'Neill only gave a slight indication of surprise, she smiled internally.

Kawalsky muttered something about it being worse than that, and then the other Major spoke up again, "By the time you get to the other side, you're frozen stiff like you've just been through a blizzard … Naked."

Jesus did he HAVE to add that? The grin on his face as he said that last word, and the look he directed at her made her blood start to boil again, but she kept calm and gave him a reasonable explanation for his statement, and THAT was where she got a slight surprise herself, the Colonel joined in the conversation!

"Oh, here we go, another scientist. General… please." So attacking her because she was female had fallen flat, he was going to attack her on an intellectual level? Just who the hell did he think he was? Didn't he realise that without her he would not be here now? It was HER that made the interface that powered the gate, SHE had written the software, AND designed the generators, and the capacitors!

"Theoretical astrophysicist" She corrected him.

"Which means…?" Again he asked a question that he seemed not to care for the answer for, his hands made a circular motion as if inviting a reply, but his face just showed boredom.

"It means she is smarter than you are, Colonel. Especially in matters related to the Stargate." God Bless 'Uncle' George, she had promised herself she wouldn't think of him like that, but the man was just so sweet.

The two sidekicks sniggered behind their hands and shared a look, (of glee was it?) which they quickly lost as O'Neill glared at them, ahh it seemed he was THAT type of person, he would only stand insubordination one way, from him to the target, however indirect, not back in the same direction.

"Colonel, I was studying the Gate technology for two years before Daniel Jackson made it work and before you both went through. I should have gone through then. But sir, you and your MEN might as well accept the fact that I am going through this time." The two 'men' looked up at her and then slid their eyes towards their leader.

"Well, with all due respect, Doctor…"

"It is appropriate to refer to a person by their rank, not their salutation. Call me 'Captain,' not 'Doctor.'" Damn the man, he was a Colonel, he KNEW the way she should be addressed, he was doing it on a purpose and she was biting! She had to rein in her temper.

"Captain Carter's assignment to this unit is not an option, it's an order." O'Neill's face was bland as he took this information in, he didn't even look resigned to the fact that she WAS going to be on the team, she HAD to get through to him!

"I'm an Air Force officer just like you are, Colonel. And just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside, doesn't mean I can't handle whatever you can handle." Well that would convince every one of them which 'type' of woman she was, hopefully they would look past her gender now and get on with the damn job!

"Oh," Oho, the tone of voice had changed, she had a reaction, which way would he jump now? "this has nothing to do with you being a woman. I like women." The arrogant son of a bitch! The smirk on his face said he expected her to drop at his feet in worship! "I've just got a little problem with scientists." Like hell he did! She was sure now, this had NOTHING to do with her being a scientist.

"Colonel, I logged over 100 hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War. Is that tough enough for you? Or are we going to have to arm wrestle?"

The Colonel just shrugged and then totally ignored her! What the hell? She simmered away in her seat, not really listening with her full attention, though she did catch his reference to "Mr. Glass-Is-Half-Empty" which made her grin slightly, against her wishes.

As soon as the briefing was done with she pushed away from the table, Saluted the General and waited to be dismissed and then hurried away to find a space to boil in. The locker room was full of men, the heads were all male ones! For Gods sake, was she the ONLY woman in the whole damn mountain? She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen, wrote LADIES on it and wedged it behind the sign on the door in front of her, she opened it and called in, asking if it was occupied, and when she didn't get an answer she entered the small room, into a cubical and shut the door, sitting on the closed lid she started to rant to herself…


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

**10:31 hours**

She had to pull herself together, she really should be used to disappointments like this, but Catherine had told her that O'Neill was a man to be trusted, she had said that to start with she had had a problem with his attitude, he had been 100 percent military hard ass, but after he came back from his trip she said he had been a likable man. Did Catherine know that Daniel was alive on Abydos? Or had O'Neill not told her either? The fact that he had submitted a false report had shaken Sam up when she heard about it last night, but when the General had called her to tell her what he knew, and why he wanted her, she had thought that perhaps this team leader had a heart, and the lengths he had gone to to protect a man he didn't really know had given her hope.

Well it was no use crying about it now, she was going to get to go through a gate and step onto alien soil, and to be perfectly honest, she didn't give a shit if he wanted her on the team or not!

She got up, took a deep breath, told herself over and over that she was fit for this mission, she should be there, she had a right to it! Her confidence restored somewhat she headed back to the locker room, opened the door and shouted in, after a couple of minutes the men had all vacated it and she went to find her BDUs.

**14:00**

She had been checked out on all the equipment that she was carrying, the master Sergeant in charge of the armoury seemed surprised at her weapons rating and the fact that she had asked for a spare weapon and a knife, he was a nice man, but again he had the very slight attitude that women in the services should be behind desks and not risking themselves. She had shrugged and clipped her weapon onto the carry harness, shifting the balance of her backpack she turned to the men gathered at the foot of the ramp. They looked a mixture of excited and calm, the excited ones were the first timers, like herself, the butterflies in her stomach fluttered harder as she heard the generators start up, CLUNK

"Chevron one encoded" This was it, she was going through, she hadn't blown it after all! For almost a year she had been turning the air blue over the fact that she had missed the last trip through the wormhole, and then when the PTB had decided that it wasn't worth continuing with the project she had been almost desperate, she had definitely been depressed, something the doctors had put down to her condition, not to her work, she snorted, like THAT was going to effect her!

The blue plume of 'water' gushed out of the ring in front of her, she had daydreamed the other six chevrons away, but GOD! It was so beautiful! She had, of course, seen all the footage from the mission last year, but to feel static charge in the air, to be stood less than five feet from its furthest reach! THIS was what she needed! She stood mesmerised, not noticing the rest of the team making their way up to the horizon and stepping through.

"Captain?" she shook herself slightly, she had to stop dreaming. Had he said anything else to her? She decided on the safe bet

"Don't worry, Colonel. I won't let you down."

He looked at her strangely, "Good. I was gonna say 'Ladies first.'"

He headed up the ramp, and she fell in behind him, cursing him internally once more. She had to get on the right side of this man, if they couldn't work together and travel to Abydos became a regular thing, then it was more likely that HE would get to go and she would be left behind, after all, she was still only a Captain.

"You know, you really will like me when you get to know me." She said, with a quick grin in his General direction

"Oh, I adore you already, Captain." Could he get one sentence out of his mouth without being either nasty or condescending?

They reached the wormhole and stopped. She wasn't sure why he stopped, but she has no choice, her body just would not move as she gazed at the 'puddle of water' in front of her. There wasn't much in the world that could provoke her sense of awe as this sight had, it was incredible!

"My God…look at this. The energy the Gate must release to create a stable wormhole is - is astronomical, to use exactly the right word." She reached out to touch it, the ripples reacted as if she had broken the surface tension on real water, she let out a slight laugh on her breath and said "You can actually see the fluctuations in the event horizon." She knew he didn't care, he had seen it all before after all, more than once. But she hadn't, and she needed a few moments to just soak it in, he didn't give her those moments, he put his hand flat on the back of her backpack and pushed her into the event horizon.

She felt sick, more than sick, this was the woman who had ridden the 'vomit comet' several times for fun! God she wished she could die, this was worse than the worst hangover she had ever had. A few seconds later her internal organs seemed to settle into their accustomed places and the nausea died down slightly, she stood up and decided not to retaliate for the comment about lunch her CO had just made, and she scanned her surroundings.

The walls and floor of the room were of a sandy colour, not surprising as it was a dessert really, but she didn't like the fact that there were a LOT of blind spots, she was just about to comment on it when a young man stepped out from behind a pillar brandishing what looked like USAF ordnance!! Several more boys followed the first from hiding around the room, and she realised that they could have all been killed straight away, the angles of fire they had just given up by stepping out would have cut the team to shreds.

A voice came from behind that said a couple of words she didn't understand and then a young man with totally different colouring to everyone else stepped forward flapping his arms about "Lower your weapons" he said, and the small troupe they were facing lowered theirs first, followed by the Colonel and his men, she kept herself taut, until she understood what was happening she wasn't going to lower HER weapon!

"Hello Jack? … erm… Welcome back?" He had sent the Kleenex box back through the wormhole, why was he surprised to see them?

O'Neill brushed straight past him, ignoring him completely! How rude could this man get?

He approached a young man several feet behind whom she presumed was Dr. Jackson. The youngster straightened and gave a credible salute, which O'Neill returned, and then in the first real show of anything close to emotion he hugged the boy! "Skaara!" 

Dr. Jackson looked resigned at his dismissal and wrapped his arms around himself as if he had stomach pain. O'Neill turned to him and at last acknowledged his existence, "Daniel, howya doin'" Sam was puzzled by the interaction of the two men, after all this was the man that O'Neill had risked charges for, and yet he had dismissed him completely, what was it with him? She would have said he treated everyone the same, but she had just seen him smile and hug the young man he was now stood next to, and something about him must have inspired his men to back his report of that last mission.

Maybe she HAD misjudged him? Maybe, just maybe, he actually didn't have a problem with her being a woman, or he had double problems with her because she was both a woman AND a scientist. He was still a total asshole whichever it was!

She stopped listening to the greetings of old comrades and stepped forward a little, her eyes drawn to something stood in the centre of the room. It was the same colour and texture as the 'gate and when she moved to put it between the 'gate and herself and looked at it she could see 'buttons' with the same symbols as the ones on the huge ring. This HAD to be the original equivalent to the keyboard she had designed to run the 'gate on earth. She had included every one of the symbols on the gate as at the time she had not known which she would need, though she had to wonder why this device had them all as well, as it only needed the seven to get to earth.

She started babbling, she knew she was doing it, but couldn't help herself, the damn thing was so SMALL and to generate the power that it must…! The mission reports had mentioned it, but not its size, or the true craftsmanship of it! She was interrupted by her CO calling her and looked at the blue eyed scientist he was facing. This was a man she could get to like, he looked so, …innocent, but she knew he had a razor sharp wit, he had, after all, worked out what she and a team of others had been unable to! Unlike a lot of clever people, she didn't mind giving credit to others for their achievements, not even if they were detrimental to her reputation, as this young genius had been. She was just thrilled to meet him, an hoped that he may just have heard of her too, though to be honest with herself, it was unlikely, until Catherine had dragged him into the project he probably knew as much about physics as her CO. Less than that even, as he wouldn't have to know about stress factors on wings and pulling G's.

Daniel shook her hand as she introduced herself but his glance slid sideways to O'Neill standing slightly behind her now, she gave him her best smile, but he didn't immediately smile back, though she thought she did detect his wife tightening her grip on his waist.

"I thought you wanted to be called Captain" Said the Colonel, her smile slipped a bit, but dammit, Dr. Jackson was a civilian, and she could decide how she wanted to be addressed if she wanted.

The Colonel filled Dr. Jackson in on what had happened back on earth, but the young doctor insisted that the aliens had not come from Abydos through the 'gate. He mentioned he could help but they had to wait a while as even this far inside the structure they could hear the wind howling. Having served in the gulf she knew just how deadly a sand storm could be and decided to keep her comments to a minimum and stand back and watch for a while.

She had to challenge the Colonel to drink the gut rot that Skaara handed him, a raised eyebrow and she knew he would not be able to back down, God men were so predictable! She laughed when he almost stripped the skin from his mouth. Then Daniel started talking about another 'gate, and she quickly jumped in saying that they had run hundreds of different combinations and never found another planet.

The sounds from outside had died down, and Dr. Jackson got up "I'll show you" he gave his wife a chaste kiss on her forehead, but Sha're seemed to want the blonde Captain to know who he belonged to and kissed him in a highly erotic fashion. Sam smiled to herself as the whole room erupted in whoops and laughter.


	3. Chapter 3

**3.**

They split into two teams, Kawalsky, the Colonel and herself followed Daniel, the rest of the men were left to guard the 'gate. As they came into the chamber the walls seemed to glow, she wasn't sure if they were covered in real gold, but it sure looked like it, even the tiny fire in the centre of the room lit a great deal, as the light rays bounced off the walls. She listened to the discussion between the two men while she used the light on top of her weapon to scan one of the walls.

The Colonels voice seemed to get a bit tighter as he asked Daniel to explain something, Sam looked around, she knew where he was headed with his explanation, but what surprised her was the fact that this man, who should be buried in the past, and trying to find references to burial rites or things like that, could see through his own speciality to hers, he had not 'read' the wall, he had charted the skies, and plotted the heavens, and come up with a theory, which may be wrong, but was brilliant all the same given his evidence.

"All of the symbols are on the Stargate in the Abydos chamber. I've also managed to chart some of them in the Abydos sky, or at least pretty close. Jack, I think this is a map of a vast network of Stargates, Stargates that are - are all over the galaxy."

"Uh, I don't think that can be, Doctor." She hated to burst his enthusiasm, but honestly they had tried a LOT of different combinations

"Why not?" he didn't seem upset that she was contradicting him, and unlike the Colonel he seemed to want to know what she was thinking.

"Well, because after Colonel O'Neill and his team came back, my team tried hundreds of symbol permutations using Earth as the point of origin, and it never worked." That had been a fun time, day after day of hoping it would work, that they would find another planet out there, she came back to work early, against medical advice, determined to find somewhere 'out there' to go to. Travel to Abydos was out of the question, as the bomb had supposedly made the whole of the area radioactive, even if they could get a lock on the gate, which in the couple of times she had tried late at night when working herself to exhaustion she had not managed to.

"Well, I tried the same here and it didn't work either. But I figured the destinations I tried are either destroyed or…buried, but some of them somewhere must still exist."

She shook her head "I don't think so."

"Then where did your Ra look-a-like come from?" he had a point, and there was nothing she could say to refute it, he had already said that the Abydos gate was guarded 36 hours a day (she was on ANOTHER WORLD! It still gave her a thrill when something reminded her of it) "I - I don't pretend to know anything about astrophysics, but couldn't the planets change? I mean, uh… drift apart or something like that to throw this map off?" Damn he was good! This man could be even smarter than herself, and she looked at him and beamed!

"I knew I'd like you."

"You mean I'm right?" he didn't seem to have a lot of confidence, now that she was agreeing with him, but at least he wasn't an arrogant shit like some men would have been and he didn't give her that look she was used to that said 'don't you have housework to do?'

"According to the expanding universe model, all bodies in the universe are constantly moving apart."

"So in the thousands of years since the Stargate was built…"

"All the coordinates could have changed."

"But why does it still work between Abydos and Earth?"

"Abydos is probably the closest planet in the network to Earth. I mean, the closer they are, the less the difference in relative position due to expansion. The further away, the greater the difference. In a few thousand more years, it won't work between Earth and Abydos either."

"Unless you can adjust for the displacement." They were finishing each others ideas off, GOD this was stimulating, why the hell was this man an archaeologist? He had so much to give on important things! She pulled herself up slightly in the back of her mind, HIS speciality had led to him being brought into the programme, which had led to the 'gate opening, and it was his specialities that allowed the people they met on Abydos to be communicated with. Just because she didn't see it as a proper science didn't mean she could look down her nose at it! She was doing just what she accused others of, and it stopped right there!

"Right. Now with this map as a base, that should be easy. All we have to do is correct for Doppler shift." Her mind ran off already working on the programme they needed "Then I should be able to arrive at a computer model that will predict the adjustments necessary to get the Gate working again." It shouldn't even take her that long either, the rate of drift was a universal constant, and most stars in the earths sky had been measured, she only needed to work out how the ones that she didn't recognise could be figured into the equation and bingo!

"Okay. So what did we just figure out?" Kawalsky asked, was it him asking? Or was he being the Colonels mouthpiece again? HE had a slight problem with asking Dr Jackson earlier, but he had never directly addressed a question to HER yet.

"Any civilization advanced enough to build this Gate network would be able to compensate for 50,000 years of stellar drift." Damn it was so obvious! Why the hell had she not seen it before?

O'Neill looked up at the cartouches on the walls "So… the Stargate can go other places."

"The aliens could have come from anywhere." She said, in awe.

**Jack**

He thought he had her worked out, all her reactions seemed to support his view, not that he cared about her preferences, though the very basest of his male nature thought it a damn shame that a woman as beautiful as that was being wasted in that way.

The reaction she had with Daniel showed him that she isn't entirely self sufficient, she could make friends with men, but let's be right, even if Daniel wasn't totally in love with his missing wife, he's a civilian pacifist, and Jack had seen her absolute delight in blowing those Jaffa to tiny pieces, though she may think he's her intellectual equal, Jack doubted she would think Danny boy would be a good match for her. She is AF through and through.

He wondered if she had a 'significant other' or if she abstained, or played the field. Usually he can tell with the men under his command within a couple of days, which category they fall into, but he has never had a woman in his unit before, and all those he has 'interacted' with have been straight, by definition. Or if they had been inclined both ways he had only seen the one way he needed to!

During the whole thing with Kawalsky she had been busy working away on her computer thingy, evidently the address of Chulak had given her a couple more pieces of information she needed to have, and even before Charlie succumbed to the Goa'uld she had a couple of places already picked out for a visit.

After his funeral they went back to work. They went to 595 and met the very friendly natives. Just two mugs of the local brew and she was dancing around the camp fire with all the other women, as the men came out of the meeting she gave them a huge smile, and swayed towards them taking off her jacket and overshirt as she came, when she started stripping her Tshirt off Daniel pointed out the reactions of the young men watching her. Jack had jumped forward and quickly went up to her, if he was correct about her, any attempt by one of these young men could turn the friendly village into a not nice place to be, she was drunk after all and wouldn't be at her most diplomatic when she kicked their arses all around the square.

Her eyes were closed and she was moving in the most provocative manner. He reached out as the skin of her stomach became visible, making sure he grabbed her by the upper arm, not touching her bare skin "Captain" he said and she jumped a mile!

Her face blanched and she cringed away from him as if he had threatened her! What the hell was this all about? He held up is hand, not trying to get close to her, "I think it would be better if you didn't take anything else off Captain, if you are getting overheated, why not sit this dance out?" He watched her as she recovered her poise, drunk though she still was she was back in control and she went and sat down as far away from him as possible, yet still clearly belonging to their group. A couple of the women sat near to the chief were watching him, as he watched her, he caught their speculative looks. He wasn't sure he liked what he saw in their eyes, but then he wasn't sure he knew what he saw.

The next day Jack cornered Daniel and asked him about the social structure of this culture, he didn't put it in those words of course, he didn't want to appear interested really, he casually mentioned the looks he got from the chiefs (wives/family/MOTHER?) and he hinted at Carters reaction to him, Daniel had seen it of course, and asked if there would be a problem. It seemed not, from what Daniel could gather it had reinforced the belief that Carter belonged to him, and that he had been keeping her in line when she was going too far.

He didn't even like to THINK about that! 'Keeping her in line' he hated men who thought they owned women, and societies that acted as if their women were second class citizens needed their own special place in hell as far as he was concerned. However the negotiations went well, the people didn't know anything about the Goa'uld, nor did they have anything of value, at least not on the surface, but Daniel insisted that they would now be great friends and maybe they would see them again!

Back at base Carter attended the medical, and the de-brief, then left the mountain before he could have a word with her. The next day he had a short meeting with her, making sure she knew that while he couldn't object to her drinking off duty, they would be expected to stick to fruit juice and water from now on. He didn't mention her reaction, and she didn't give him any explanation for it.


	4. Chapter 4

**4.**

The planet they were next assigned to was one with a mongoloid culture, the rocky start they had when Carter spoke was soon covered up, and they were invited back to the village.

Jack entered the tent in which the woman leading them indicated Carter was to be found and tried his hardest not to smile broadly, he was a bit surprised when the chiefs son told her she looked beautiful that she actually looked puzzled. She couldn't be oblivious to the fact that she was very VERY good looking could she? Was she THAT naïve? The look on her face though when she gave them a 360 view was total disgust! It wasn't like it was a skimpy bikini or anything, in fact it covered almost the same area as her BDUs, but it was a bit on the 'pretty' side and the look on her face was sooo worth it! He covered his bodies reaction to her in the clothes quite easily, after all his gun would be the only thing anyone would see if they looked at his crotch, but to be sure he took off his hat and held it in his hand by the peak, allowing the rest of the material to fall into any line of sight that may cause both of them embarrassment.

"Look uh, I will not wear this thing over my face." She picked up the silk hanging to one side and sort of allowed it to cover the bottom of her face before dropping it again "I don't care how much embroidery it has on it. And this dress, or whatever it's called, I mean I can't move, I can't walk." She gestured helplessly to them.

Daniel and Teal'c hadn't moved a muscle since they had seen her, in fact Daniel hadn't closed his mouth either, Jack decided he better do or say something before she exploded,

"I don't know, It…it kind of works for me." God how he was managing to stop himself from laughing loudly he didn't know, it would be like seeing the Generals face if they made him wear mess dress to work!

"It's, it's you, it's…" Daniel floundered and Jack was delighted to see her eyes narrowing in on the younger man, Teal'c looked as if he had just discovered that she was a real woman, seeing the types of clothes that the people on Chulak were wearing Jack doubted the Jaffa had ever seen a woman that wore mens clothing most of the time before he found them.

"It's you." He said picking up on how Daniel had phrased it

"Definitely you." Said Daniel at the same time. Jack made a small gesture to Daniel to keep him talking, if he could get her mind on he job again then he could stop her exploding in rage at the treatment of women. She had been bad enough at that initial briefing, god help them if she started here, she was ARMED! … well he wasn't sure where she was keeping her weapons, but only her P90 was visible on the pile of discarded clothing, so he guessed her knife and sidearm were somewhere under the dress, the thought made his heart increase in speed a little more. "Uh, uh the good news is, uh you were right. One of Abu's plants seems to work as an anaesthetic. Were taking some home to get it, uh, a-analyzed."

Jack smiled at her "All things considered," he paused to give effect "SAMANTHA" did he have a death wish? The glare coming off her could light a village! "if we have to come back here, it might be a better idea to bring an all male team. No offence." If he had suggested that before setting out today he would have had a mutiny on his hands, but she actually seemed to calm slightly as he said it.

"Well, in view of the fact that you all get to go to this party tonight and I get to stay in this yurt, that smalls like rancid yak butter, none taken. I'll just get a good nights sleep, and hope for better luck next time." They heard shouting coming from outside, and all three soldiers tensed until they realised it is someone having fun, not a call to arms. Daniel gestured and he and Teal'c went out to the 'party' but Jack couldn't help but pause on the way out, and look at her again, she really looked beautiful.

"You going to be alright?" he asked her. He didn't like the thought of her being in here alone, but then she was armed, and the women were well guarded, in a sort of enclosure of their own well inside the circle of tents.

"Still doubting me?" He wasn't doubting her, was he? He didn't think it was that that had made him ask. The fact that for the first time since two minutes after they met he was reacting to her as a man would to a woman, rather than one officer to another could have something to do with him asking though. "I haven't been afraid of the dark since I was two." Was she deliberately getting the wrong end of the stick? However he didn't want to push it, he smiled and decided one more jab would be in order 

"You look great." He ducked out of the tent and got a good fifteen yards away before laughing his head off, hoping the noise from the party would cover it! She didn't come out and castrate him so he knew it had!

The next morning he sent Daniel in to get her so they could head back to the gate. He wasn't sure he could stand to see her in that dress again, especially not if she had just woken up and was looking all sleepy and sexy and… 'WOW! STOP Jesus Jack,' he told himself 'DON'T go there! It would be bad enough if she were just your 2IC but given her… orientation' He watched Daniel as he covered his eyes and ducked through the flap of the tent calling for her, less than 20 seconds later he was back out and Jack could tell something was wrong. He got up and crossed the open area, Daniel just held the flap open and Jack went in to see an empty tent, with her P90 on the floor. It wasn't exactly where it had been, as if it had been grabbed and then dropped. She had not just wandered off to the head, she had been taken!

He went back into where they had left her the night before and found that Daniel had located her sidearm, still in its holster attached to her combat vest, and her knife was in the pile too! CRAP! What was she thinking of sleeping unarmed offworld? He was going to have a serious talk with that young lady!

Talking to the chief he learnt that his son Abu, the lad they had saved, was probably responsible, and she had probably been sold! Jack really did not want to think of what it could do to the young woman's psyche if she was sold and maybe even assaulted physically.

It took them most of the day to track the horses, but eventually they came to an encampment not too different from the one they had left. It was an enemy camp! The old man wanted to wait until first light, but when Teal'c asked "But what will happen to Dr. Carter tonight if we wait." Jack did not like the answer

"Turghan will partake in his newest purchase."

"Oh, there's not a chance in hell." He said, and took the safety off his weapon. 

They headed into the camp and were soon surrounded by Turghans men who ordered them to dismount. Moughal asked for trade and the men were lead into the chieftains tent, in one corner behind his chair was a scrap of bright blue cloth! The head dress that Sam had been wearing was in the other corner behind his chair. Jack tried not to think of the reasons her clothes could be torn.

The man was as dirty and smelly as his tent and it soon became obvious that he would sooner lose the opportunity to make a huge profit than to hand the young Captain back.

In the end Jack traded his sidearm for her, and they left the tent. As she was brought to them she gave them a beaming smile, he tried to make eye contact, but she avoided his direct look. Jack decided that she couldn't be badly hurt, if she had shown any sign of anything except an acceptable stiffness from riding a horse all day, Turghan would have received another bullet, and this one he wouldn't be firing into the air

The night was closing in quite fast now, and so they decided to go into the woods for a while and then as soon as full dark fell, make camp. As the men started getting firewood and clearing ground Sam retrieved her clothes from Daniels horse and went off into the trees to change back to normal.

When she came back she said "What a relief, I have never been so happy to see you guys."

"Oh, sure you have," Jack decided to make light of what had been happening, she looked fine, and he was sure that she would have said something by now unless she had been violated, but there was no indication about her at all that that could have happened "remember that time on P3X-595, you drank that stuff that made you take off…" She glared at him, but not a threatening glare

"We won't get into that now." She gave him a small smile to show she knew he had been joking, and he was relieved to see it, she was OK

Jack posted the watches, He took first, Sam second, Daniel third and Teal'c last. Usually he would have given Sam and Daniel the first and last watches so they got uninterrupted sleep, but he couldn't be sure that Tughan would not be sending after them when he ran out of bullets and first and last watches were the ones most likely for an attack. The night was quiet, though he did notice that Sam slept on her side, every time he had seen her sleep before (all 3 times) she had laid straight out on her back, it was another niggling little detail, something wasn't right, but he wasn't sure what it was.


	5. Chapter 5

**5.**

Next morning they were all woken by the sound of hooves and the boy responsible for all this came galloping to the camp. Jack was up in a second with his weapon ready, Teal'c there before him, but then he HAD been on watch, Daniel sort of woke up and slowly got to his feet but the Captain seemed to be stuck her weapon ready but one knee still on the ground. He wondered if she was making herself a lesser target or if there was another reason. When Abu came to a halt she stood upright, no sign of the stiffness of the day before.

The lad managed to convince his former captive to help him rescue a girl! Much to Jacks disgust. She was too soft for the job and he had to laugh to himself when she quoted the special forces motto to him, to HIM! The look in her eyes though made him think she knew things she shouldn't, he decided he would do a little digging into his new Captain when they got back to base.

They got back to the camp of smelly tents to see the child tied to a stake and all the men of the village had rocks in their hands, just eager as all hell to kill her!

Unfortunately when Mughal quoted the law that he had found to save the girl he was dismissed out of hand. Turghan refused point blank to fight the crippled old man for the life of his child. He looked at his people and stated his opinion

"You insult my honour by implying that I would engage in such a slaughter. You will lose and my daughter will still die. So unless there is another chieftain who will challenge my decision…" he seemed confident that no one would, after all you only get one chief per village.

Abu moved out of the way, allowing Carter to step forward "I challenge it." She said

Turghan looked at her in disbelief "You? You plague me." His voice was menacing

"Then fight, here's your chance to shut me up once and for all." Jack knew that she would have moves these people couldn't imagine, and though the man facing her was taller than she was, and a lot heavier he knew she worked hard in the gym, she was not as soft as she had looked in that blue dress!

The man looked around at the circle of villagers, He could not refuse to fight her on the grounds she was a woman, they had named her chief before any of this had started and the law did not specify that it had to be a man "I will abide by the wisdom of the spirits. Let them decide justly." Once she had knocked him down a few times Jack was sure they could collect the girl and allow them to ride off into the cliché.

The men were already forming the 'ring' that the fight would be held in, and Jack decided that a bit of babbling was in order to stop her from worrying "So when your backs up against the wall and there's no tomorrow, just take one day at a time, and remember the bigger they are, etcetera." He grinned inwardly at the expression on her face.

"You don't think I can win." She said. He thought no such thing to be honest, she could take him.

"Sure I do. I assume you have at least some basic hand-to hand training." 

"Yeah, level three, advanced." More than enough, level 3 was actually quite good, he was surprised.

"You'll do fine." He held onto the bits of webbing she had detached from her vest and went to stand next to Mughal "Just out of curiosity, how do the sprits determine who wins?" 2 falls a submission or a knockout? He doubted the Marquis of Queensbury rules would be in play, but there had to be a clear win somewhere.

"It is a fight, to the death." Was the answer. CRAP! No one thought to mention it before? He railed internally! He could have pretended to be chief of an allied village, he had to stop it, he couldn't expect her to kill a man like this.

"Death?" He watched as Turghan pulled the large knife, more a short sword actually from its sheath and tried to step into the open space to put an end to it "Hey, no one said anything about…" he was stopped in his tracks as a large blade was pressed against his throat "…Knives." He saw the Captain take out her blade, though usually it looked good enough for any job, compared to the pig sticker she was facing, it was not impressive.

Turghan attacked first, Jack saw her roll away under the blade, she shouldn't do moves like that in a fight like this, keep movement to a minimum, enough to avoid the blade but nothing fancy, she could easily lose just because she tired out. He watched as Turghan flailed wildly at his Captain, she was getting the idea now, just moving the parts that needed to be moved to avoid getting sliced, let him waste his energy. Jack moved his right hand to the selector on his weapon, changing from single shot to continuous, and though he didn't in any way show it, he could kill everyone in front of him in less than 3 seconds. Of course he may not HAVE 3 seconds, or rather by the time he decided to act SHE may not have them.

Yes! First blood to Carter, a stab into the abdomen, great place to get him, all movement would pain him now. The tribe started muttering to themselves, looked like them good old spirits may be on the right side after all. She just had to keep her guard up now, if she could keep out of his way he would gradually weaken from blood loss and pain as well as fatigue.

Turghan seemed to know this as well as Jack did, and he started an attack that drove her back until his fist knocked her to the ground. Turghan closed with his weapon raised high, but he made a classic mistake, he was stood too close to her legs, and unlike him she had been trained not to rely solely on tools, rolled away from the downward sweep of his blade, and as it embedded itself into the log she had fallen against she kicked him exactly where she had opened him up before. He staggered back, the pain of the kick on top of the pain of the open wound and the tenseness of his strained muscles made him cramp and she gave him the side of her boot across his face. As he swung back, not a conscious choice, she kicked him straight in the nose. Pressure point!

He didn't go down though, this tough mother had had his nose broken a couple of times before anyway looking at him, but it gave her a chance to get up in a controlled fashion, not staggering to her feet and as he brought his arm over to down slice she crossed her wrists and stopped him dead, then stepping half a pace back she once more kicked him in the gut, she forced his hand down across her thigh, slammed his wrist until he relinquished the hold on his weapon and it was all over. She offered him his life in exchange for his daughter, got promises from him of no war and no retribution against themselves and stood up, she was magnificent! He couldn't have been prouder of her if he had tried. He put the safety back on his weapon and they went back to their horses.

By late afternoon they were leaving the village, a six day wedding, now THAT was a party! Sam had been honoured by Abus mother and thanked profusely by the happy couple, she almost looked embarrassed as they declined the invitation to stay, but arranged that if the medicines they had been given samples of were of any use someone would be back. Mughal specified that it would not be necessary for the females to stay at home as long as his camp was closest to the 'gate, they would be treated as equals, as they once had been, and as SG1 walked away the line holding the blanket curtain wall dropped and the women clapped them. Score one for Feminism, Carter style.

They had a bit of friendly banter on the way back, more relaxed with each other than they had been up to now, and Jack felt that maybe, just maybe it wasn't so bad, having scientists about.


	6. Chapter 6

**6.**

They went down the corridor towards the locker room, and Sam told the men they could have first go at the showers, she would go get her medical over with and meet them at the briefing in a couple of hours. She walked off down the corridor and he waited until she had turned the corner before he followed the other two. Damn shame about her, he thought, so much bravery, brains and beauty in one package, and she was playing for the other side!

'Least it won't end in a court martial though, he thought to himself as he stripped his gear off. He stripped the patches off and put them on the shelf in his locker, and then, throwing the BDUs into the hamper he stepped into the shower. The other two were discussing her, the general consensus was that she was great, all three men agreed on it and Jack noticed that Teal'c had started calling her Captain Carter rather than the Doctor Carter he always used before, in fact, Jack noticed he was thinking of Sam rather than Carter, not a very military thing to do, he better watch himself.

Twenty minutes later the three men walked into the infirmary, they were supposed to be getting a new CMO today, but he/she was nowhere in sight and old Doc Warner was there, doing the post mission check, even though he was a surgeon. Kawalsky had killed the last CMO when he first got infected, Warner had been filling in ever since. He was a decent MO but he really didn't like doing the routine stuff too much. He grumbled under his breath a couple of times while drawing blood, but he soon cheered up when they told him what they had brought back and put into Quarantine for him to look at later. He, of course, wanted more details than they could provide on the efficacy of the salve that Abu had claimed had cured a burn and stopped pain in a relatively short time.

The post mission medical done with the three men went to level 27 to the briefing room and sat waiting for the General and the heroine of the day. They could see the General on the phone through the glass and when he put it down Jack could have sworn he saw the mans shoulders slump. He saw Hammond take a deep breath and then straighten up and head to the room the men were waiting in.

"So men, what happened on the planet?" the question seemed casual but the way the General held his fist on the table and the set of his shoulders spoke volumes to Jack, something was wrong, and it could be either the stuff they brought back, or Sam.

"Shouldn't we wait for Carter sir?" The muscles around Hammonds eyes tightened, it was her! "She should be here while we tell you how she saved the day"

"There's been a slight delay with Captain Carter, she will be debriefing separately later"

"Sir?" Jack looked him straight in the eye and was surprised to see the man had pain showing, what the hell? "May I ask what the delay is, we separated less than 2 hours ago and as far as we knew we were going to meet here"

"No Colonel you may not ask." Said the older man. "I want a verbal report on the planet, leave nothing out" He looked straight at Jack "nothing" he reiterated.

They gave him as complete a report as they could, taking it in turns, even down to the design on Sams dress! When they got to where they had chased after her the General seemed to slump again slightly, but then pulled himself back up and listened to the rest of the events unfold. He dismissed them when they had finished and left them sat there looking at each other as he went to the other exit and bypassed his office, clearly heading to Sam. Jack had felt a lump in his gut ever since the General had said he couldn't ask what was wrong, God he hoped he did not know what it was, if she had been raped it was all his fault!

All three men headed straight for the infirmary, but only Doc Warner was there, and when they asked after Sam he said he hadn't seen her, he presumed the new CMO was dealing with her as he was only called to do their physicals just before they arrived to have them.

Jack told the other two to go get some rest, now they had all been given rooms of their own, Teal'c had a VIP suite but the other two just had standard officer quarters, as they could leave base if they wished.

He headed back to Hammonds office to see him sat there with a petite woman in a white coat, who was looking through a file that she held on her knee and she would look up at the General and say something every minute or so, shaking her head slightly in a continuous movement. He knocked on the door to the office, causing both people inside to jump slightly, he had been stood just the other side of the glass, but they were so absorbed in what they were doing that they had not noticed.

"Sir, I know what you said earlier, but if there is something going on with Carter I should know about it, I am her commanding officer and if I let her down in any way I need to know about it!"

The General rubbed his hand over his head and down his face, he looked tired all of a sudden. He glanced at the woman in the chair opposite him and she gave a slight nod of her head. "Sit down son," the General said, indicating the chair next to the brunette "this is Major Janet Fraiser the new CMO"

"Major" he said nodding his head at her

"Colonel" she replied giving him a speculative look, but no salute, she indicated the file on her lap, he noticed it was quite a thick file as well! "this is Captain Carters medical file" Damn he knew his file wasn't much thicker than that and he had seriously busted himself more than once, not to mention the nice pile of documents he got after getting back from being a POW.

She opened it and drew out a piece of plain paper filled with small neat writing "Captain Carter is being removed from active duty for a couple of weeks, maybe a month, she has suffered some nasty lacerations to her back and sides, has a couple of bruised ribs, a nasty bruise on her left thigh, looks like a hob nailed boot made it, a bruised cheek bone, minor cracks to her left forearm and has chipped a small piece off of her pelvis" He was waiting for it, but she never mentioned rape.

He had to know "Was she raped?" blunt and to the point as ever, he could not for the life of him think how else to ask.

"No sir!" the CMO looked surprised at the question, "she has been beaten, but not penetrated in any way" Thank God for small mercies, though to be honest it wasn't such a small mercy that she had not suffered that! It was a HUGE mercy.

"I don't understand sir, If I had known that that bas…" he looked at the small woman in the next chair "That TURGHAN, had beaten her, I would never have allowed her to persuade us to go back, and she certainly showed no sign of pain during the knife fight"

"Knife fight?" Maj. Fraiser looked sharply at him "What knife fight? She never mentioned that to me, was that while she was in the tent being 'disciplined'"

"NO doctor," the General said "the fight happened the day after that incident"

"How the hell could she get into a knife fight with half the skin off her back missing?" Jack winced Jesus she had gone through all that while being half flayed? How the hell did she cope with the pain? How had she managed to MOVE, he remembered her throwing herself about during the fight, no sign of stiffness at all.

"Sir" he went blank, what the hell could he say now? I want to see her? I want to go back and kill the bastard that did this? Everything he could think of began with the word I, and he didn't want to say any of it, SHE should be the focus of this meeting, not what HE wanted!

The General seemed to know at least some of what he was going through "Son, don't beat yourself up about it, she has told me that you had no idea, and I am certain that after listening to your reports that the others were just as ignorant of her condition as you were.

Sam is good at hiding things away, it takes a hell of a lot for her to show she's hurting, physically and emotionally" he shook his head at his private thoughts "you have no idea what she can cover and hide when she wants, and I'm afraid she has had plenty of practise.

"The reason Sam was not on that first mission to Abydos was that she was in the hospital. She had gone to work one day, worked 6 hours of a heavy shift, this was before the Pentagon, when she was still actually helping to build this facility under General West, she had just welded together some dampeners," He gestured to the gate through the window, Jack knew the ones he meant, big springs attached to the base of the 'gate, massive things they were! "She was lifting one up, it weighed more than half what she did herself, when for no apparent reason, she keeled over, luckily it fell away from her and rolled into a bench. The CMO at the base started to examine her when he found she was almost one solid bruise under her uniform, he ordered an immediate set of Xrays, and a full body scan, she had 13 bruised or cracked bones, multiple impacts all over her body, but nowhere visible, and some other damage" JESUS, she had put in a shift with that damage? What the hell was she made of, or what the hell had she been taking to hide damage like that?

"The body will only take so much and then it starts giving in" the CMO spoke up "it was close for Sam, if she had not been on base when she collapsed she would have died" she closed her eyes in pain, "renal failure was the one closest to killing her, but it was a toss up"

"They ever find who did it to her?" It was heartbreaking to think that she had undergone such punishment, but it was so very very much more difficult to believe she would have kept on working, knowing the damage she had.

"The police and SFs had a suspect, but they couldn't prove anything, and Sam clammed up" Hammond said, Jack had noticed that the General was talking as if he knew a hell of a lot more than he was saying, at a time when she was under someone elses command, either Hammond had known her before she transferred into the SGC or West had done a hell of a lot of talking, the itch to look into her past was becoming hard to ignore.

"All this is besides the point, Sam has explained to us what happened on the planet, and apart from the fact that you are all going to be staying on earth until she is better, this matter is now closed." The General looked straight at Jack with a glare that could not be mistaken "Closed, you understand Jack. Let her heal in peace, she needs to be able to trust her team to do what she wants them to, and the last thing that young lady needs is 3 mother hens"

"I doubt you can count Teal'c as a mother hen Sir, though I don't know him as well as, say Daniel, I believe he will respect her wishes, he could give lessons on stoicism"

"Only tell them what you have to, make sure they keep away for a couple of days, she has specifically asked for that, when she gets out of the infirmary will be soon enough"

"Yessir" Jack stood up and saluted

"Dismissed Colonel"

"I'm sure you did the right thing General" He slowed as he was closing the door when he heard Fraiser start talking "He will blame himself for a while, but he needed to know, let's just hope he never finds out the rest"


	7. Chapter 7

**7.**

He almost ran to Daniels room, knocking loudly he found there was no answer, he decided to try the office/lab type room that his work was in, but he was not there either. Jack went to the VIP suite to get Teal'c, they could find him together, only to discover the Jaffa was not at home either. Where the hell were they both? A security officer was walking down the corridor, Jack stopped him and asked if he had seen the missing members of his team.

"Yessir, they are sat outside the infirmary" he replied, SHIT! Jack headed straight to them getting there just as Fraiser did.

"Gentlemen please leave the corridor, if there is an emergency you could cause a delay"

"I got it doc" Jack said, he looked at both men and indicated with is head that they follow him. He lead them back to Daniels den, rather than to anyones room, and he filled them in on what must have happened in the tent before they got there, he never mentioned anything to do with Sams past, just what had happened to her on the planet, and that she would be fine.

He told them her wish to be left in peace until she had healed a little and that the doctor was not going to allow them to see her until SHE said so. Both men were shocked, of course, but Daniel was almost in tears.

"This explains the change in Captain Carters sleeping pattern" Teal'c said, of course, he was right, she didn't sleep on her back because she couldn't, then he remembered something else, she had walked from the tents to the 'gate with her full pack on, and a couple of times he had actually bumped into her, CRAP, it just got worse and worse. He walked out of the room without saying another word, and headed off to his office to get the official paper work done, he felt almost sick, should he include what happened to her? Where in the narrative? As it happened or when he discovered it at the end? He was passing a door, and without even looking at it he started to punch and kick it with all his strength.

Teal'c had followed him out and managed to stop him doing any real damage and escorted him to the infirmary where an xray showed no bone damage, just bad bruising and split skin, they dressed his knuckles and sent him away again. He exited the double doors and found Daniel sat there, Jack slumped against the wall sliding down until he hit the floor, and hugged his knees to his chest. Teal'c stood between them, straight and unmoving.

**Neutral view**

Janet tried to get them to move several times over the next few days, most of the time all three were there, but sometimes she would get lucky and only find one, or two. Repeated orders from General Hammond had just as much impact on their behaviour as Janet's did, but he couldn't punish them for it, not even the Colonel, he didn't blame them in the slightest and told Sam exactly what they were doing every time that he visited her, which was several times a day. She closed her eyes for the first couple and told him to tell them to leave, after that she stopped saying it and he thought that maybe she was coming around to accepting that they cared for her.

George looked down on his beautiful god daughter seemingly sleeping soundly at last and his heart almost broke. "Why do you allow yourself to take so much punishment child?" he whispered brushing the hair that had fallen onto her forehead back, "Want me to get your dad?" he had to ask her, he would not be able to get in touch with her father unless she authorised it, and he hoped that if he asked while she was so out of it he could make out that she had given her consent, but her eyes shot open

"No! The General does not need to be told" she said in a hard voice. "I am going to be out of here in two more days, even if you could find him in that time, he wouldn't get here before I was gone" He sighed, and nodded his head sadly, though both she and her father said that they got along fine, what they meant was that they never saw each other to argue any more. They loved each other, but had spent so long hurting they couldn't face each other any more. "Your team are outside again, I think the floor must be starting to generate their heat back at them, they have been sat there so long"

"On the floor?" she asked, the first time he had had a proper response out of her since the debrief besides the repeated Greta Garbo impressions.

"Yeah I think Daniels butt is going to be as flat as Jacks without the exercise at this rate" he grinned and she grinned back.

"Ok, let them in" she said and a delighted General rushed into the corridor to give them the news.

They filed in quietly and when she next opened her eyes Jack said "whatya doin' Carter?" in a tone of voice that was so neutral, yet so normal that she sighed in relief.

"Getting out of here soon I hope sir, Load of fuss about noth…" She saw them all blanch and shut up. "Not a lot sir," she started again "I don't suppose any of you has a pack of cards?" Jack grinned at her

"Be right back… don't go anywhere" he said and rushed out of the room, to return in less than five minutes with a pack and a score pad… "What's yer poison?" he asked as he shuffled them, sitting on one side of her, on the bed. Daniel sat on the other side and Teal'c stood at the foot watching, they were still there 3 hours later when the doctor kicked them out so Sam could get some sleep. And for a change they actually left.

Twenty minutes later, though, Teal'c was standing solitary vigil outside the doors again he left about midnight as Daniel appeared, dragging yet another chair with him, she kept moving the chairs as soon as she could, they were a fire hazard and more importantly to her, a hazard to medical care! But he kept bringing another one with him.

Daniel fell to sleep on the chair just after 0400 and Jack turned up at 0500 and knocked him off his perch, sitting in his place as the young man got up and went off, presumably to bed.

Sam argued, pleaded, cajoled, even threatened the small woman to allow her to go to her base quarters, but nothing moved her, she knew it wouldn't she had been through this song and dance with this particular doctor in another place and time. General Hammond backed every word she had said and told Sam that he would stand her down for a full three months if she did anything against medical advice. After all he had deliberately asked for her to be posted there, knowing the stubbornness of the woman and more to the point, of the people she would be asked to look after. Sam silently fumed, while her team mates attempted to entertain her, without allowing her access to the computer she was forever asking for, or to anything more high tech than a pad and pen.

It was actually a week, rather than two days before she was let out of the infirmary, and even then she was told to stay in her quarters as much as possible. Her car keys had gone out of her locker when she went looking for them, she was trapped. Her key card would not open the door to her lab, and she was bored to death.

**Jack**

Sam was on the mend, out of the hospital and free to roam the halls looking for trouble. He had been asked to escort her from the gate controls twice today and was just about to hand over baby sitting duty to Daniel when he remembered something that he had wanted to do. He carefully guided her in the direction of his office, the one he pretended not to have, and asked her to sit down while he arranged to get a laptop delivered from the stores. She looked at him, so damn hopeful that he hated to tell her it wasn't for her, so he called the General and asked if he could let her have computer access so long as her team made sure she didn't over do it. She looked so pathetically grateful when the airman delivered the machine and he handed it to her, he told her to go sit in Daniels lab with him as company, and to relax. She hugged the machine to her chest as if it was a baby, and with tears in her eyes she went to her next minder without her usual acid comments, Jack contacted the stores again and asked them to send another machine over, and twenty minutes later he was looking through the personnel files that his position granted him access to.

He was surprised to say the least at Sams personnel file. She really had done 8G bombing runs, and not just simulated ones, she had been awarded a couple of medals for above and beyond actions, such as staying with the pilot of a downed bird, circling his chute until he hit the deck and then constant monitoring until he could be rescued, even though she was VERY low on fuel. She had a total of NO black marks on her record, and all her evals were spot on, only her age and, possibly, her sex were holding her back from Major. Hammond would sort that out Jack was sure, he was a fair man, and she was a shining star in this command.

Then he saw something that gave him pause, her next of kin… blank… no next of kin? There was the usual side note that in case of medical decision of a desperate nature, she wanted no extraordinary measures, and her flag was to be presented to…George Hammond, (Maj.Gen.), relationship… no relation.


	8. Chapter 8

**8.**

OK so it definitely was a case of him knowing her longer than this tour. This form was almost a year old, he wondered of he could find the last version of it, there could be some clue on it, depending what information had changed. He went back into the files, but could not see how to call up what he needed. He could do with a computer expert, however the only one he knew wouldn't help him, as it was her history he was trying to read!

Some of the things on the file could be pressed to go to other pages, he tried a few and found that he could call up her academy record! Wow did she look young there! She had graduated her classes (the three year courses) in her first year, did a double doc. in her second, She was awarded almost every prize the academy offered, sports as well as academic, The picture of her being presented with a diploma was on the Academy website, and there in the front row was a familiar bald head, stood next to another set of stars. Both men were on their feet clapping her, and that familiar heart stopping smile seemed to glow off the screen at him. So the General had known her quite a long time, and who was the second set of stars?

He decided to do something different, and went to the biographies page of the AF website and typed Carter in the box, these pages were accessible to anyone with the internet, he got ten results but only four of them were for people called Carter, the others had references to the President Carter administration. He noticed that Sam wasn't actually one of the names. Ahh they were all stars, the lowest people to come up on these searchers were Brig. Gen.

He pressed the links in order they appeared, and compared the photos on the pages to the

The back of the head next to Hammond, and there he was. Maj.Gen. Jacob Carter. Not hard to work out which he was as he was still alive and under 80! However for a 'bios' there was no mention of family, just his record of education, deployment and promotions, he found Hammonds bios and studied the two side by side, they had been on the same tour in Vietnam, and a couple more times they were at the same base at the same time, once for a year. So, that was how Hammond knew Sam, but why was Sams NoK empty when her father was not only still alive but still on active duty? Why wasn't he listed for her flag if anything happened to her?

He stared into space for a while until a knock came at the office door.

"Come" He said, quickly closing the lid of the laptop down. "Sir!" he jumped up and saluted, the General gave a vague wave and told him to sit down, and without waiting to be asked took the other chair.

"I wondered how long it would take you" the General said.

"Sir?" Jack answered.

"When an officer who hates anything that slaps of science orders 2 laptops I have to wonder why, especially when he gives one to his junior and then the flag I have on certain personnel files pops open" Crap… he wasn't totally sure what a FLAG was but it was obvious that the General had been warned about him accessing Carters file, did he also know that he had been looking into HIM? He hadn't touched the personnel file, only a publicly available website "Yes I know you went to both Jacob and my bios as well" He was a mind reader this one!

"Sams personnel file was scrubbed, at my command, over a year ago when she started doing top secret work, at her request any reference to her father was removed as it had caused her a bit of trouble prior to that point when people accused her of promotion due to 'daddy'. Let me get this clear, son, she was promoted because she deserved it!"

"I have no doubt sir," Jack said honestly, and while they were on the subject "Her first eval coming from this desk will recommend her for a gold leaf"

The General gave Jack a genuine smile. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that, especially considering your first meeting"

"Sir, I never try to let my personal prejudice get in the way of the people under my command, once I am stuck with them, that is" He gave the man opposite a sly grin at that.

"I understand why her Next of Kin box is showing empty now sir, but what would have happened if something happened to both of you? The duty of notice would fall to myself or Makepeace, neither of us would have known to contact the General"

"As far as you know son, there IS no General, if anything happens to us, just make sure you notify my family first, they will contact her dad and brother, don't expect to see either of them. Unless you go to the funeral." She had a brother too? He thought HE was emotionally repressed but if she had cut off her entire family she could give him lessons!

"Sir, what happened to her back when we were killing Ra?"

"It was a couple of weeks before that, which is why she never met either of you, Daniel was brought in the day after Sam was admitted to hospital and you were a couple of days after that, in fact the only reason Daniel was brought in was because Catherine Langford had lost her resident genius and needed another one." The General seemed to remember the question Jack had asked again "I can't tell you a lot, apart from the fact that a lot of what I think I know is speculation on my part, and I was not stationed anywhere close, Sam just refused to confirm or deny the theories we had. Let's just say she had been having a relationship with someone that had ended just prior to the beating she took. With the fact that the injuries were meant to cause pain but not be life threatening if treated, and that none of them could be seen while she was in uniform, it was deduced that it was someone who knew what they were doing. The reason she was in such bad shape was because she did NOT seek medical attention, and went to work instead. Whoever it was was very careful, and the chief suspect had an alibi."

"Anyone I know?" It was a long shot, but truth be told he could have caused that sort of damage, all too easily, he had had specialist training in causing it, he still had friends out in that dark world and he may be able to find out more using his contacts than he could from the man sitting at his desk.

"Jack leave it alone. I mean it, your buddies network is not going to provide you with answers, you are barking up the wrong tree with this. And for Gods sake, do NOT… NOT let Sam know you know any of it! Don't slip about her father, as far as she knows YOU can only see the scrubbed version of her personnel file"

"Yes sir, I would like to say I understand why, but I don't, and I know that that is on purpose." Hammond could be right, there were very very few women in special ops, if there were ANY. Finding one who had been in a relationship with his young Captain would be impossible, it wasn't something that would be talked about. It was bad enough if the enemy could find a family member but something like a homosexual relationship would be too much of a risk. These people were trained to keep secrets, after all he had known Charlie Kawalsky that well he had named his son after him, but Kawalsky didn't even know he was married, never mind that he had a family.

Hammond got up and went to the door. "I don't think I have to say this to you, but look out for her and never take her word for her being 'fine' luckily the new CMO is a sensible woman, she won't take any nonsense, and she will make sure she is thorough, with all of you," he tipped his head slightly "your own file seems to indicate that you can be a pain in the backside over this sort of thing too" Jack gave him a wide eyed innocent 'who me?' look. The General chuckled and exited the room.

Jack got up, put the machine in a drawer and went to find the rest of his team.


	9. Chapter 9

**9.**

The next planet that SG1 was given was one that could have been where the Goa'uld has taken Skaara, the symbols they had were half the address, and this was the first match from the Cartouche Chamber that was found to use them. Sam seemed a lot more relaxed, not as tense around them as she had been, she had smiled at several of his jokes, and even made a couple herself. The men had formed quite a tight bond with all the waiting around they had done, and with Daniel acting like an annoying little brother, Teal'c as a guardian of sanity and himself looking after all of them, things were meshing well.

The first sign that he noticed really was when Sam 'attacked' him in the locker room, well, yes, there had been the whole foaming-at-the-mouth Marine thing, but hey! They were Marines! If they were sane they would be in the AF.

He was a bit puzzled right from the get go if he was honest, there was no conversation as such, she just grabbed him and started kissing him, she was hard, wild rough and out of control, she told him she wanted him and much as he hated to admit it, he was tempted not to take her down to the doctor until he could see how far she was willing to take it. The security cameras in the corner decided him though, he got the upper hand and dragged her down to join the Marines.

He had to hold her down while the nurses strapped her to the bed, she was really strong! He should have guessed that from the knife fight, as well as the throw away comment the General had made about her lifting one of those giant spring things on her own. But really it took three orderlies and himself just to get her upper body restrained, he stepped back and left them to it to talk with Fraiser. She showed him down a corridor full of small cells that had been converted into bunk rooms, he had spent some time in one when Kawalsky was being treated, but now they were locked and guarded. He saw Johnson and Makepeace both of them changed almost beyond recognition and Makepeace was pounding into the wall and leaving bloody marks on it. Jack closed the view panel and turned back to the infirmary.

"All the victims are behaving like primitives." Fraiser explained "Most female low-level primates tend to choose their sexual partners according to who would give them the strongest offspring. The leaders of the pack, or a tribe, were usually the prime choice. You should be flattered." She had a slight smirk on her face but was trying to keep it turned away from him.

"Oh, yeah. I'm honoured." He said as they turned a corner, Sam was still strapped down and still had three people holding her, he tilted his head as if to ask permission and the doctor nodded and followed him into her office. "I am also a bit puzzled if I'm honest" he said.

"Puzzled?" asked the doctor

"Yeah would this virus override a persons… erm…" he had no idea how to ask the question "what I mean is, Carter attacked me…" the doctor nodded but he could tell they were not on the same page "well it's just that… I'm male"

The doctor smiled and looked him up and down "Yes sir, I believe you are"

"No, I mean Carter attacked ME," she seemed to get what he was talking about

"Oh no sir! She isn't… she doesn't … Sam is straight sir," STRAIGHT? What the hell? "I don't know what gave you the idea she wasn't" he could tell her, in fact he could list several times and things that gave him a bloody good idea that she wasn't straight.

"You sure doctor? I mean, you may not have the right idea, she behaves as if she… erm…" he waved his hand in front of him

"Yes sir, a lot of women do in the military, it saves them having to fight off the idiots, and to be perfectly honest it is none of your business what her sexual orientation is."

He held out both hands in front of him in surrender "Hey! I don't care. I never did, it was just puzzling, I would have thought she would have been kissing YOU instead of me" he grinned at the look she shot him.

"My ex-husband wouldn't be that shocked if she had either" she said, "he was convinced that there was 'something wrong' with me when I decided to enlist. 'There is a reason they call it this MAN's army'" her voice had a mocking twang in it, and she gave him a lop sided grin.

Jack opened the door to the office to leave and heard the struggle with his Captain still full force. "Is she supposed to be knocked out by now?" he asked

Janet pushed past him, went over to a trolley and grabbed a syringe and injected her again. "She will have built up a tolerance to the sedatives as she has had quite a few over the last month," she said "but we will be able to control the dose and keep her from harming herself, or anyone else"

Jack nodded and headed for the Generals office to report what had happened. The General made a note of his comments, and he passed on what the CMO had told him so far, he wasn't feeling very well, he itched, as if he had an irritant on the inside of his t-shirt. He was dismissed and went down to the control room, he didn't know why exactly, so just stood behind the man who made the announcements and scratched at his shoulder.

Daniel came into the room, reading something as usual, damn geek started talking about some 16 syllable word that he didn't understand, and then asked about the scratches on his neck that Samantha had put there while they had been getting to know one another.

"Oh, I - got in a little wrestling match with Carter." He thought back, remembering the feel of her body

"Why?" Was this man stupid or what?

"I guess she's got whatever Johnson's got. Had to drag her off to the infirmary." 'Play it cool Jack,' he thought to himself, but he could feel the testosterone building

"What, did she start a fight with you, like Johnson did with Teal'c?" 'Why the hell would they want to fight? There are a LOT better things to do with a woman like her than to fight'

"No, she, uh - tried to seduce me." 'And was doing a damn fine job until I stopped her', he couldn't for the life of him think WHY he had stopped her

"Oh. You…poor man." Daniels voice was getting blurred, like he was walking away in a tunnel, Jack tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

"No, it wasn't like that. She was like a wild animal. She was nuts." 'and hot'

"Well, is she all right? I should go see her."

"Why?" why is HE going to see her?

"What do you mean, 'why?' Because I care about her."

Daniel turned away, but Jack wasn't letting him walk off without getting to the bottom of this, was he really stupid enough to challenge HIM for Samantha? If he was he was going to have to fight for her. He grabbed his jacket and held him still.

"You care about her? What's that mean?" 'Give him a chance to back down, he is part of the team too you don't want to hurt him if you don't have to'

"It means I care about her, she's my friend. Now let" and he tugged away from Jacks grip "go!"

"She's not yours to care about." 'She's MINE!'

"What the hell are you talking about?" What? What did he not understand?

"I'm talking about Samantha. You just stay away from her, okay?" plain simple language  
someone who can supposedly speak to so many different cultures should understand that!'

"Okay. Okay, Jack. I think you should come with me to the infirmary, okay? Just let go of me and - let go of my…" He was struggling, and talking about going to the infirmary, hadn't Jack just told him not to go near Samantha? Here he was telling him that he was heading straight for her. Jack couldn't have his authority challenged like this, HE was in charge, and Samantha was HIS. She had known it even before he had admitted it. Well there was only one thing for it, he would have to teach Danny boy his place in the pack.


	10. Chapter 10

**10**

Jack didn't really remember anything else until the doctor had given him a shot. He had had snatches of partial lucidity he was told, but he didn't remember them. He had to work out what to say to Sam, she would be embarrassed enough that her 'cover' was blown without telling her that she had decided he was the best available sexual partner… he grinned to himself, if he was honest about it, he would have chosen her if it had been the other way around too.

They sorted out everyone on the planet using the doctors shots, and were heading back home when she brought it up herself.

"About my earlier behaviour… I wasn't myself, and…" Wasn't herself, like he was going to believe that bull again, oh, he realised that she wouldn't have attacked him in that way no matter what, but she seemed to be implying once again, that she was batting for the other side.

"Oh, Carter, I don't even remember your earlier behaviour." No matter what, he wanted her to feel comfortable in the team, so he just dismissed it for her.

"You don't?" she asked hopefully

"No, I was infected too, remember?" He waited for it…

"Right! Good, I'm - I'm glad." Nope, she hadn't realised, if she remembered it then it was obvious that he would as she had been more infected at the time.

"By the way, how's the wound?" If she said fine he would have a go at her. 

"Wound?" she looked puzzled.

"I understand you got stabbed in the stomach?" he reminded her and her face cleared. 

"Oh, yeah, that - that was nothing. With any luck, there won't even be a scar." Was this her usual dismissal or was she telling the truth? Fraiser HAD allowed her to go to the planet, and there was no real need as such, one less person wouldn't have made a difference.

"Well, good. I was concerned." He said.

"You were?" DAMN she STILL sounded surprised that he cared. With the way the team had looked after her and been by her side since the trouble with Turghan. She had a serious problem with trust, and a lack of self confidence as well, not professionally nor academically, but she did when it was personal.

"Sure." He smiled at her "If it doesn't heal properly, you'll never wear that sweet little tank top number again." She stopped and he walked off, score one for him!

A couple of days after that mission Jack found himself in the General's office looking over the influx of people assigned to the base. There had been an increase in SG teams from the original five teams they had increased to twelve. The computer programme that Sam had written to compensate for shifting co-ordinates was working better than expected and they could keep four teams offworld at once, four on stand down doing pre or post mission stuff and four on stand down doing routine things around the base, and available if help was needed, for a rescue or extra scientists. They had also got several civilians into the programme, all of them having worked in classified positions before, though why a civilian anthropologist had been needed for top secret stuff before this he had no idea.

Team leaders had been recommended by their previous COs and now it was a case of putting the right people in under the right leadership. There were a couple of ex special forces people, another team of marines, these had come as a bunch and Jack agreed with the General that there was no real reason to split them up, Marines tended to look down on the other professions so it would not be a good idea to shove a civilian anthropologist in with them, especially as the one they had available was a female. Damn jarheads were so cocky that they would dismiss anything she said.

They got to team 9 when Jack was looking through the leaders file and found something strange. "Sir," he passed over the sheet of paper "look at his next of kin"

The General looked and the muscles in his face tightened up, he started to go red, with anger, not embarrassment. He picked up a pen and scribbled the name on the form out. "I'll deal with this team myself Colonel O'Neill" He hadn't called him that in a couple of weeks, face to face he had been 'Jack' or 'son'. "you may as well go and get lunch now, we can continue this afterwards, say 14:00?"

He was ASKING? And it was only 10:30! Jack stood up and headed for the door "If you see your team, you could fill them in on how you think these new people will fit in around here" He held up the paper that Jack had given him and waved it slightly before putting it down and placing his palm flat on top. "I'm sure you will remember some names, so you can give it a personal touch"

He was asking Jack to tell Sam about that new SG9 leader, not surprising considering. Jack nodded at Hammond and opened the door. "I'm sure at least some of the team will be interested sir, 14:00? See you then"

He strolled down the corridor towards Sams lab, he should catch her alone, that way if she had a negative reaction, and from Hammonds he thought she may have… he slowed to a stop, on the other hand, her team between them made for perfect balance, he may not be the person she needed for this, he decide to gather the troops, and changed direction. He caught both Daniel and Teal'c in Daniels lab sorting through some pictures that SG4 had brought back of a temple, they were discussing the difference between Egyptian hieroglyphics and Goa'uld ones.

"Whatya doin'?" he asked as he walked in. Daniel started to tell him and he flapped his hands to show it had been a rhetorical question. "Just had a strange meeting with the General"

"Thought you were reviewing the personnel influx?" Said Daniel

"We were, until I came across the newly appointed leader of SG9, there's something about him that gave the General a pause and told me to go get lunch with you lot." He stopped for a second while the cogs turned in Dannys head "I know Teal'c has not had any contact with the man, as he isn't even on base until tomorrow. I doubt YOU have had anything to do with him, and I certainly didn't recognise the name."

"Sam?" Daniel looked puzzled.

"Yeah, from the way the General acted, I don't think she's going to be pleased to see this man," he looked at Teal'c who inclined his head and asked

"Do you think that Captain Carter needs to be protected from the knowledge or from the person O'Neill?

"We can't protect her from the fact he has been posted here, she will see him, if we go casually give her the heads up she will have some time to adjust to the fact he's here, rather than finding him in a corridor one day"

"What happened between them?" Trust Daniel to ask the question he couldn't answer.

"I don't know Daniel" he could guess that it wasn't pretty, and that it may have had something to do with the beating she received, but the other two didn't know about that, "all I know is that the General thinks she needs to know, and he interrupted our meeting so I could tell her, I was thinking, she maybe could do with a bit more moral support than I can provide" the team-mates immediately got up and headed for the door.

"Come on Jack, lets go see what gadget Sam is playing with" Daniel said


	11. Chapter 11

**11**

The three men got to her lab and noticed there were no warning signs posted, so Jack opened the door and poked his head into the gap "Whatya doin' Carter?" he asked, he could see she was working on her computer, so he opened the door fully and all three men entered. Teal'c closed the door and moved two paces into the room and no further, anyone trying to enter would meet a wall of Jaffa flesh and that would stop them dead.

"Sir, erm Daniel, Teal'c, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Just passin'" he said, "thought maybe we could get some lunch in 15?"

"We can go now if you want sir, I can save this, actually it's at a good place to stop," she typed a few more keys and started putting the lid of the machine down

"Want a word first, best we have it in here and not in the commissary, damn Jarheads are such old women and I'm sure they try to listen in to everything I say"

"Such a fountain of wisdom sir, you can't blame them," she was making a joke, DAMN it wasn't often she felt happy enough to joke with him, he hated to upset her. "thought you were going to be in personnel evals and assignments all day sir?"

Ahh well, least he didn't have to bring it up, he walked over to her desk and leant on it with his elbows, it was a high desk, so that anyone working at it didn't have to bend down, he picked up a shiny silver disk, it looked like a CD but had no hole in the middle, he turned it over and over, watching as Daniel went to stand at the same side as she was, but not too close, she often moved away if someone got very close.

"Funny you should mention that, I came across something in one of the files that made me curious" she looked at him, she knew he shouldn't share anything in those files with her, never mind with a civilian like Daniel "the next of kin listed for one of the new Captains is you" he pointed at her with the disk and saw her face go deathly white.

She started to sway slightly, God she was going to faint! Daniel grabbed her shoulders to steady her and she pulled away that sharply she fell into the bench. "Don't touch me" she grated. She looked straight into Jacks eyes and whispered "Jonas? Here?" she was begging him to say no, but of course he couldn't.

He nodded and she closed her eyes, but not before he saw them start to fill. Teal'c took another step into the room, "Captain Carter, for what reason do you fear this man?" he asked.

She didn't seem to hear him, she stood, slightly resting against the bench, pale and shaking, Daniel put his hand on hers and when she tried to pull away he grabbed harder, not enough to hurt, but enough so she knew she wasn't getting rid of his grip. He just stood there, holding her hand, not saying a word, and slowly she seemed to come around.

"Sorry sir," she looked at Teal'c and Daniel in turn, including them in the apology "it was just a bit of a shock that's all. I haven't heard from him in over a year, it… it didn't end in the best way."

"You had a relationship with this man?" Asked Teal'c, this was the first time Jack had heard him speak in a proper way unless talking about mission reports or telling about the Goa'uld.

"You could say that." She answered "we were engaged" Oh BOY! An ex on base, that was no ones idea of fun.

"I broke it off and… Jonas didn't agree" she was finding euphemisms "There was a… a…an … argument, he started throwing things and the people in the apartment below us called in the police, he was taken out in cuffs. He was not happy about that either"

"Did he threaten to cause you injury Captain Carter" Teal'c was getting more out of her than he ever could, and Daniel still had hold of her hand, he was very glad he thought to bring them with him.

"He said some things… but do you think I would allow anyone to hurt me Teal'c?" It WAS Hanson! He knew that she had either been taken by surprise or had allowed someone to hurt her and she had protected whoever it was. It made sense if it was her ex fiancé … NO GODDAMIT it did NOT make SENSE!

While he was thinking this through Teal'c had answered her question by inclining his head as he usually did. She had been jumped, she wouldn't have worded it in that way to someone as wise as Teal'c if she had allowed it to happen, and from the look Teal'c gave him he knew too.

"Anyway, I can avoid him, he has had plenty of time to calm down by now. I don't want any unpleasantness at work, and we will be on different rotations anyway, half our downtime he will be offworld, and he won't need the science labs anyway." Was she trying to persuade them or herself he wondered?

"The General doesn't seem pleased to hear he is on base, but he is stuck with him for now. I am sure you won't have any problems with him Captain."

She thought for a second "Wait… you said I was still listed as next of kin?" he nodded "you also said he was a Captain? He was a last year!"

"I'll look into it. I thought it was strange a Captain being in charge of a team" he decided to take her mind off it a bit, if he could "now, how about we go get some cake, it's amazing how much a decent slice of cake can help." He looked at her and got a faint almost-smile in response.

"Yes sir" she said and turned to the door trying to extricate her hands from Daniels grip "you can let go now" she told him

"No I don't think so" he replied

"Daniel" Jack said "She doesn't want to walk through the corridors with you holding her hands, people will talk" he gave him a significant look as if to give him permission to let go.

"On one condition" said Daniel, boy this man could be a pain!

"What condition?" both Sam and himself asked

Daniel held out both his arms to her, but didn't attempt to close with her. "I could use a hug" he said. Sam looked at him for a couple of seconds, her shoulders stiff she took the one pace needed and he wrapped his arms around her, she gradually relaxed a bit and Daniel smiled at Jack over her shoulder.

He thanked God again that he had thought to bring the other two men with him, she would never have allowed him to touch her, even if he had offered, which he couldn't. Daniel turned her and not moving more than a half inch from her side they went into the corridor and all went to lunch.

**14:00**

He knocked on the door and entered when he heard the permission, saluted the General and when he waved his hand he sat in the seat he had occupied most of the morning.

"How did it go?" Hammond asked, he looked nervous to tell the truth, and really Jack couldn't blame him.

"I took the kids in with me," he said, the older man looked at him in surprise and opened his mouth to say something, but Jack raised his hand to forestall it "please sir, hear me out…" he told the whole story, noting the surprise on his bosses face when he told about Teal'c questions, and the smile when he described Daniels unique handling of her.

"Thank God!" he said at the end, "I wish I had known that he was put forward for this, I could have nipped it in the ass, but it all went though while I was in a straight jacket" referring to when they had been cell mates during the virus.

"She brought up that point about his rank, sir, and honestly a CAPTAIN being assigned as team leader? It doesn't add up, none of our other leaders is lower than Major and the two Majors we have are ready for promotion"

"He was leader of an operation that went south, according to his former CO" the General opened the top folder, Hanson's of course, and lifted a sheet out. "the hearing decided that he had been negligent and he was given a choice, demotion or retirement, looks like the board were thinking he would retire rather than suffer the loss of rank, but he refused" He read a bit more "There is a personal note here from his CO that says in HIS opinion it was a kangaroo court, that Hanson did everything right, and he didn't deserve the judgement, however the rest of his unit lost faith in him, making it impossible to stay, which is why he got sent here"

"Any details on the op?" Jack asked. He had been in enough ops, failed and otherwise to know that this sort of thing DID happen. SOMEONE had to be blamed if things went sour, and it wasn't often the people giving the orders at base who took the blame, it was the commander in the field.

"Just that it was covert, and Hanson was the only one to come back out of ten men" WOW! Losing ten men would have been hard on him, that and survivors guilt, plus the verdict and the reaction of the rest of his unit… Jack started to feel sorry for him, and then a picture of Sams white face, her blue eyes wide open in shock, sprang to mind, and he killed any sympathy that was building.

"When will he be arriving, sir?" He hadn't taken notice of that sort of detail "Teal'c wants to know…" When the older man looked at him sharply he quickly added "He just wants to be available to Carter if she needs him, I doubt he will actually say anything to Hanson"

"Make sure he doesn't Jack, I can't keep him from the vultures if he breaks protocol, we don't want Colonel Kennedy back at our door do we?" Good point, he would have a word with the big man and make sure he knew not to do anything… or at least nothing that hey could PROVE he had done. Jack smiled internally, he was sure that Teal'c could work something out, the heads didn't have cameras in.


	12. Chapter 12

**12**

**Sam**

Oh god! Oh God! OH GOD! Her brain seemed to spin in ever decreasing circles, she couldn't think! She couldn't breath! OH GOD! She felt someone grab her by the shoulders and she was back in the apartment, being pressed into the bed, she could feel his weight on top of her, she stared to hyperventilate.

"Don't touch me" she grated, almost falling over before she realised she was stood up, not laid down. No! It couldn't be! She was only just getting her life back together! She looked at her CO and whispered "Jonas? Here?" her eyes were begging him to reply with the word 'who?' or something, anything that meant it wasn't HIM, but the brown eyes she was looking into gave her the answer, it WAS Jonas! Oh god! OH GOD! The litany restarted, her eyes closed of their own accord and she couldn't think of anything except the refrain Oh GOD and the name Jonas. They took it in turns being shouted inside her head as she felt herself going light headed.

She needed to… to… she needed… OH GOD! JONAS! She… she… JONAS! OH GOD!

"Captain Carter, for what reason do you fear this man?" she heard Teal'c asking, his voice was low and steady and she grabbed onto it as if it was a life raft, using it to ground her and help her get out of the blue funk she had worked herself into.

She felt someone taking her hand, the touch was light, tentative even, and she pulled out of it, starting to wring both of her hands together, only to realise that the grip was back, she opened her eyes, Daniel was looking at her, his piercing blue eyes full of sympathy, and a little fear for her, he had a tight, but comforting grip on her hands, and he held firm as she twitched slightly as a prelude to getting free again. He didn't say a single word, just held her hands and gave her support through his glance, her breathing got almost back to normal, though she was probably still pale.

She turned her head to the Colonel, who had been watching all of it without moving, she was glad he hadn't tried to hold her, she really would have lost it if he had. Soldiers have hands that are callused in certain ways, and she was sure that his would remind her even more than Daniels, the fact that he had been special forces, like Jonas, didn't help either, the one time he had initiated contact she had almost fallen into a bonfire in panic.

"Sorry Sir," she said to him, she couldn't go showing weakness like this, she needed him to think of her as a soldier, someone he could rely on, not as a damn woman! She turned her gaze onto the other two men, including them in her apology. Could she salvage this, before she lost every scrap of respect she had managed to build up? "It was just a bit of a shock that's all. I haven't heard from him in over a year, it… it didn't end in the best way."

THAT was the understatement of the year, the decade, the centaury!

"You had a relationship with this man?" Asked Teal'c. A relationship? Well it could be called that she supposed. She had watched the occasional Oprah and the like, and heard the term 'abusive relationship' used to describe one person using the other as a punch bag, but she couldn't tell these men that! Not if she ever wanted them to look at her without pity again.

"You could say that." She answered "we were engaged" Actually the reality had been that HE was engaged, she just didn't dare object. For so long, much too long, she had been silent.

**Just over a year ago**

When she had finally decided that enough was enough she had waited until he was out of the country on one of his little trips for the government and she packed her clothes, left the ring he had given her on the coffee table and had moved out of Colorado Springs, where she had been working at the mountain, to the desert to do some R&D on the 'Doorway to the Heavens' project.

He had called her less than twenty minutes after getting home, he had actually sounded, calm, on the phone, reasonable in fact. He had told her he still had some of her things, though she was almost certain she had not left anything behind, and he said he would drop them off later in the week. She had replaced the receiver with trembling hands, and let out a huge sign. She had done it! She had escaped!

She thought!

He had been waiting at her door for her when she got home on Thursday night, she was later than 'normal' for her, an experiment to measure the tensile strength of the new suspension coils had taken a lot longer than she had thought it would. She was quite pleased actually at the result, maybe the next time they tried to power up the doorway, they could avoid shaking the mountain to bits.

He had a box at his feet that she assumed contained the things that had been left behind, it wasn't a huge box, about a foot cubed, he stood back a bit, lifting it into his arms with no effort and allowed her to unlock the door. The second she opened it he pushed her through, throwing the box down he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her, kicking and screaming into the bedroom. He held her down while securing her hands to the headboard, and he gave her a couple of thumps to the stomach as he headed down her body to do the same with her legs. She managed to knock the lamp off the bedside table with a kick, but then he sat on her limbs and she was powerless. He had managed to tie one ankle to the footboard when they both heard sirens in the distance, he paused and she screamed again as loud as she could! He thumped her again, robbing her of breath and put a piece of cloth, could have been a handkerchief, into her mouth. The sirens got closer, they heard the car doors opening and slamming and the sound of feet thumping up the stairs.

Someone started pounding on the door "Open up! Police!" came the voice. Jonas put his hand over her mouth, and with that and the fabric she was having trouble breathing, she couldn't do a single thing to let the police know she needed help. He sat on her, looking down at her, not a sign that he was worried at all, just calm. It was weird. The pounding restarted and she could hear the voice of the young man from below telling them she was definitely in there and in trouble. The policeman seemed to pause a second and then the door crashed open.

By time the two armed officers got to the bedroom Jonas was stood by the bed looking innocent, "Sorry officers," he said calmly, he glanced at her, no menace in his gaze, which made her go colder "we were just having a bit of fun, we like to experiment" he gave them a wink as if to allow them in on a joke and she struggled to spit out the cloth in her mouth that was stopping her from telling her side of it. PLEASE don't believe him, she begged with her eyes. The younger of the two men stepped up and gently removed the cloth, and asked her

"Everything ok miss?" There was a noise at the door again and a party of SFs burst in, oh god, she was tied to her bed and the LEOs were holding a convention!

"He attacked me" she said "there's nothing consensual about it" Jonas feigned surprise

"Sam, don't be silly" he said in the tone of voice you would use to a two year old who you knew had been poking his fingers into the frosting of a cake. "If you say things like that you could get me arrested, we don't want that do we?"

"Please don't believe him! Untie me! PLEASE!!" the edge of hysteria in her voice seemed to settle the matter and the SFs came forward and grabbed him.

"SAM!" he shouted "DON'T YOU DARE!" he started struggling in the restraints "She's my fiancée, she's lying SAM!"

The two men who had hold of him were finding it harder and harder to keep a decent grip. The young policeman who had removed the gag started to free her limbs and he could see the welts that had developed as she had been struggling, he point them out to the other LEOs they were very deep, and the blood rushing back to her fingers was painful.

"You can leave it with us now officers" said the Sergeant "we will deal with Hanson" she looked at the man sharply, how did he know Jonas' name?

"I thought that her neighbour called her Miss Carter?" the one closest to the door said puzzled

"She IS. This one is Hanson" he said. She saw the gears turning behind both the policeman and Jonas' eyes, the SFs had not been called out by accident, they knew he was going to be there, and were expecting something to happen. Question was, who had called them, actually a better question was HOW had they known to call?

She tried to rub her wrists to get the circulation moving properly so the pain would stop, and thanked the two officers for their help as they backed out of the room. She heard them telling her neighbour that everything was fine and to return to his home, he would be contacted for a statement later. Three SFs dragged a still struggling and swearing Jonas into her living room and the Sergeant sat next to her on the bed.

"You OK Captain?" he asked putting his arm around her shoulder, she leaned into him slightly accepting his warmth and comfort

"I will be once he's locked up" she replied "I want to press charges" she said in a strong tone of voice, and he nodded at her with approval.

"Good! I hate domestic disputes where the victim defends the perp. We need to get you some medical attention, let's go back to base and have the MO look at you, we will need photos of the damage as well. He didn't…" the man looked uncomfortable "he didn't…"

"No he didn't rape me" she said in a matter of fact voice "though I have no doubt that would have happened if the police hadn't showed up when they did, you may have arrived too late" she raised her eyebrows at him asking the question.

"We got a tip from Peterson that he was on his way and he meant you harm, we had already set off when the radios picked up the 911 call, and before you ask" he raised his hand, palm flat towards her "the tip was anonymous but it did mention he was dangerous so we called up a second car once we heard he was actually here, to deal with him"

She smiled, freed herself from his arm and stood up. "I wonder where my shoes landed?" she said looking around, he told her he would meet her outside and left her to tidy herself up, she could hear Jonas shouting still, and when she got near the window she looked out to find four men carrying him, flat out, face down, they almost threw him into the rear of the car. A man got in either side of him and they drove off, leaving three men and one vehicle waiting for her.

She got home again at 23:00, the photos, the statement, the dressing of her wrists, all had been tedious and annoying. She repeated the same things a couple of times, they wrote it all out for her, and she signed it. The Sergeant gave her a lift back to her apartment and saw her to the door, he had had a NCO sent over to repair the jamb so she was secure in her home and she thanked him and said goodnight.

She entered the door, closed it and put her back to it, she couldn't move for a good five minutes because she was shaking so much. She made her way eventually into the living room, opened the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of vodka. She got a tumbler and half filled it with the colourless liquid and drank it down in a couple of gulps. She almost choked at the strength of it, but refilled the tumbler before screwing the cap back on. She usually had tonic water in vodka, but today she needed something stronger. She spent a couple of hours calming down and then had a quick shower, wrapping plastic bags around her hands and half way up her lower arms to protect the gauze on her wrists, and she brushed her teeth. She changed into her comfortable pyjamas and fell into bed at around 0200. She had to be up in four hours!

She woke in less than one.

The first thing she knew was a knife at her throat, and a weight on her chest. He was back!


	13. Chapter 13

**13**

"Bet you didn't expect to see me again, so soon did you darling?" he whispered. She daren't move! He quickly tied her hands back to the headboard, and then her legs. She was rigid in shock, how could he be here? It must be a nightmare!

He sliced through the pyjamas, laying them open under her, but not removing them. "You know I have friends in high places, don't you?" he asked, she couldn't answer, she was way past scared, she was completely petrified, "they need me for a job in Afghanistan, and they got me out so I could go, but as a favour they allowed me a conjugal visit, as I have only just got back" What the hell? Someone in authority was allowing him to do this to her? They MUST know why he had been arrested! She felt betrayed, as if she was a commodity, and one a hell of a lot less valuable than he was.

The thing that terrified her most was the fact that she was actually still a virgin, she had promised her mother, before she had died, that she would be a virgin when she married, and he had said that he understood this all the way through the relationship. She didn't want her first time to be rape, but she had no choice in the matter. Her mind started to disassociate from her circumstances, and she blacked out.

The alarm went off at 06:00 and she stretched, immediately her body let her know that it had not been a dream! She felt sick, her pyjamas were missing, she was naked, in bed, not tied up, there was no sign of Jonas. She slowly got out of bed and headed for he bathroom where she spent twenty minutes dry heaving into the toilet, as the warmth from her bed dissipated she stated to feel even worse and managed to get herself upright and examine herself in the mirror above the sink. She was covered in what were going to be massive bruises once they had time to fully develop, she took a shower to loosen her muscles, they kept cramping due to the abuse they had suffered. It was while she was in the shower that she thought of sexual assault. She quickly parted her thighs and saw the blood on them. She curled up in a corner and cried.

Her usual schedule gave her plenty of time for a run in the morning, so by the time she had pulled herself together she still had plenty of time to get to work on time. She saw no point in reporting the attack, it had done her a hell of a lot of good last night hadn't it? As she was just about to open her front door she saw a piece of paper on the carpet, she opened it and it was just a plain sheet, with printed words, it said 'I can come back any time'. She almost lost it again at this, but screwed it up and threw it into the corner of the room, she left her apartment and went to work.

Again the day was a blur, she could never recall what happened to make her keel over, in fact it was three days before she regained consciousness, and there was a SF stood at the foot of her bed when she did. It was the same Sergeant from the 'night before' and he shouted the doctor as soon as he realised she was awake.

The doctor arrived, a young woman, she was small and petite, with brown hair of a length she wouldn't have got away with if she was a front line officer. She checked her pupils with a flashlight, her pulse and BP were being monitored by a machine at one side, her heart by a machine at the other, and what looked like a dialysis machine whirred away quietly near the foot of the bed. She had more tubes and wires attached to her than you saw in a whole episode of ER!

"Glad to have you back in the land of the living" the doctor said in a cheerful voice "can you tell me your name?" she croaked and the doc gave her a straw to drink out of, she wet her mouth and started again. Name, rank, serial number "date of birth?" she told the young woman. The doc turned to the SF and smiled, with a nod of his head and started to walk away, only pausing at the door to say "fifteen minutes, no longer, she needs to sleep" the Sergeant nodded moved closer to the head of the bed.

"Captain Carter. I am really glad to see you awake." She just looked at him. "We need you to tell us what happened to you" she continued to stare.

"Captain?" he leaned closer and she shrank away, she didn't mean to, it was an automatic reaction. He pulled back quickly and took a step back. "Would you rather I get a female officer?" he asked. She closed her eyes, she may as well have just screamed at him that she had been raped, before long everyone would know and they would start treating her like a victim!

She lay on the bed and refused to even acknowledge he was there. She drifted off to sleep. Several hours later she woke when the doctor was attempting to insert a catheter she moved back up the bed quickly and started screaming. The doctor was the same one as earlier and she spoke in a calming voice, explaining what was going on.

"Captain, we have taken you off the dialysis machine, your kidneys seem to have started working again, but you need a catheter until you are fit enough to control your bladder and move about" she said, Sam stopped screaming and the young woman held her arm, where she could see the tubes leading to the machine at the foot of the bed were no longer there. "I was hoping that I could get the catheter in place without waking you, I know it is traumatic, especially after what you have been through, but we need to be able to control your waste." She didn't move a muscle, she just stood there patiently while Sam processed the information, she eventually nodded and lay back down.

The doctor was quick and she was gentle, but it hurt a lot! Sam could not relax her muscles and she fought the intrusion, but eventually it was in place and a bag hung off the bars at the side of the bed, hidden by the blanket. "The SFs want to talk to you about the attack, are you ready?" Sam shook her head.

"I can keep them out for you then" the doctor said, much to Sams surprise

"Thank you" she whispered, and relaxed back in bed again, closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.

She had no idea how long she had been sleeping when she heard voices on the other side of the privacy curtain the doctor had left around her bed.

"I don't CARE!" it was the doctor from earlier "I will not order her to see the security force!"

"They sent a woman to interview her" a male voice replied "she should think herself lucky, there's nothing in the military code to say she has to have a female police officer unless she is the one being arrested"

"LUCKY!" the woman spat out "she had bruising over 75 of her body, 13 bruised or cracked bones, a concussion and she has been repeatedly sodomised, how lucky is THAT?"

"You know what I mean doctor. Now if you cannot get her to agree to be interviewed she will be put into another doctors care, have you any idea who her FATHER is?"

"I don't give her damn if her Father is the POPE! HE isn't my patient, SHE IS!"

Sam had heard enough, she was not going to bother with reporting the attack, she saw no point in it at all, especially as she honestly couldn't remember most of it, however she did like the fact that the female doctor was looking out for her, even when being threatened by a superior officer.

"Doctor?" Sam spoke. The privacy curtain moved and the familiar face came through with a man behind her, he was tall and had Col. Williams on his name tag, she looked at the woman's uniform, Capt. Fraiser. "Could I have a drink please?" she asked

"Captain" the Colonel said briskly "the doctor seems to think you do not wish to talk to the SFs about the attack?"

Sam just looked at him silently.

"They have sent a female officer to take your statement" he said it as if it was a special favour! She knew some men would think it was, but not many would be tactless enough to use that tone to the victims face! She continued to stare at him, she had played this game for the last 10 years with The General, almost every time they met turned into a stubborn staring match, and even though he outranked her AND was her father, she usually won through sheer bloody mindedness.

"You have to see them and submit a report" no reaction, he was starting to look frustrated, "Captain you WILL see them!" blank look.

He turned to the doctor by his side "send that SF in"

"You will report Captain, or you will be ON report!"

The curtain parted again and the Colonel turned to Capt. Fraiser "Dismissed" he said

"No!" Sam raised her hand "She stays"

"The doctor has other people to see Captain" he looked at the little woman and indicated she should leave.

"Bring me my discharge papers, I'm signing myself out" Sam said

"You cannot do that" the Colonel looked smug "you are a member of the Air Force and as such you MUST obey the commands of the CMO of your base, and that is me"

"Bring my resignation papers at the same time then" she said looking straight at him again. The female doctor was hovering with the curtain half open, she didn't know which way to turn.

"Have YOU any idea just how displeased my father will be when he hears about this" Oh like SHE was going to tell him! However this bloody idiot didn't know that, and his earlier conversation on the other side of the curtain allowed her to know which buttons to press.

"You may stay Captain" the Colonel backed down, and Sam caught a slight grin on the face of the SF, the doctor just looked bland, 'well trained', thought Sam.

"Captain Carter, I am Major Robinson, I am here to ask you what you remember about the night you were attacked" she got a pad and pen out and pulled up the over bed table, she then looked at Sam expectantly.

"Nothing" she said.

"Nothing? Nothing at all?"

"I remember getting back to my quarters at about 23:00 last night…"

"Actually it was four days ago"

"Erm, what?" Sam asked, her brain didn't seem to understand what the Major said, as if she was speaking in Cantonese

"You got back to your apartment at 23:00 after being at the lock-up making a statement on Thursday 17th , today is Tuesday 22nd , you collapsed on Friday 18th at 14:04 in your lab, and we were called at 14:48 by Colonel Williams when he discovered the extent of your injuries, we immediately tried to trace Jonas Hanson, to be informed he had left the country for a three month tour somewhere in Europe, and that he had been on the flight before midnight"


	14. Chapter 14

**14**

She closed her eyes, he really DID have friends in high places, she bet if they checked the flight plan for the plane he caught to 'Europe' that it would show he had set off when they had been told, and that a head wind or something had caused the 4 hours extra of the flight, or a stop for fuel, or anything so long as he wasn't in the US when she knew he WAS.

"Can you give me any details of the attack? Anything at all? Sergeant Wright" she noticed Sams blank look "he was in charge of the detail that arrested Hanson at your home, he took your statement?" she waited until Sams gaze cleared and then continued "He believes that Hanson did not board the aircraft when it has been reported he did, and that he IS in fact responsible. However if he did do this to you, assuming he headed straight for your apartment after being released, the time taken to assault you, a couple of hours we have been told by the medics" she inclined her head to Fraiser "the flight plan shows him to be mid-Atlantic, and the craft definitely landed when it was supposed to have done, we have independent corroboration from the British air traffic controllers"

Sam doubted that he had travelled east, if he WAS heading to Afghanistan as he had said then they would have flown him west, that is how they made up for the time, the plane may have flown but he wasn't on it, someone else pretending to be him was, not unusual in special forces.

"I don't remember anything past getting home" she said

"Why did you not report the attack when you woke?" the young lady asked

"I don't know" Sam replied, she was getting tired and her eyes started to close.

"I think that's enough for now" Said Dr. Fraiser to the SF. The Colonel held up his hand

"No it isn't enough" he said "Captain you will give a full statement, and explain your actions" he said pompously

"Dr, please bring my discharge papers and a telephone" she said resting back against the pillow. The Colonel turned a violent shade of purple and stormed out of the room. Sam opened one eye, sighed and looked at the two women. "I'm sorry" she said "I don't remember anything"

"YOU have nothing to be sorry for!" the doctor said, and the SF nodded her head in violent agreement.

"We have forensic evidence from your apartment, but unless they find semen it will be hard to prove if it was Hanson, as he had been there earlier, and you specifically mentioned that you had not been violated in the earlier incident" this reminded Sam that she HAD been violated and her throat swelled shut with trying to hold back the tears. The Major continued, "please Captain, I know it can't be pleasant, and I am not going to insult you by saying I know how you feel, I don't, but IF you remember ANYTHING, even a smell, a sound, please let us know!" She nodded, but her throat was too tight to actually say anything.

The SF left the room and the small doctor drew up a chair. "I know you remember, if not consciously, subconsciously, because you have been talking in your sleep." She held her hand out, "I have told them you have a concussion and may not remember anything, but I would like you to agree to therapy" Sam shook her head but the doctor carried on "This is not up for discussion Captain, you WILL have therapy, if only to allow you to sleep better, and if you refuse I WILL get your resignation papers drafted, because I am not going to pass you fit for duty until you have" She looked Sam straight in the eye, and Sam saw a determination there that she doubted she could break.

"We will come back to this soon, you have a lot of physical healing to do first anyway" she patted her hand gently "get some rest for now, I'll look back in before I sign out tonight"

"Wait" Sam grabbed at her arm as she stood to move away "I heard you talking earlier, you said that I had been…" her throat closed again and she squeezed her eyes shut, willing the tears away until she was alone

"Violated, yes, I'm sorry you had to hear it like that, however when we did a rape kit we found your hymen still intact, so don't worry about pregnancy, you just have to heal"

Strangely Sam found it quite comforting that she had still a chance to keep her promise to her mother. She drifted off to sleep.

She did not wake at all that night, if the doctor did look in on her before leaving she never knew, but the next day she woke quite early to find a friendly face sitting by her side. "Uncle George!"

"Sam, what happened to you love?" his eyes were full of unshed tears, it hadn't been that long since they had seen each other at Aunt Mary's funeral, and the thought of the woman who had been the closest thing to a mother to her for the last ten years made Sam want to cry as well. Just as she was about to give in to the tears the door opened and the Colonel from yesterday came barging into the room.

"General SIR!" he said, coming to attention and saluting, which was unusual in this setting. Uncle George stood and waved a salute back in his direction and then sat back down. "sir, we tried to get your daughter to make a statement to the SFs but she refused, and when I ordered her she threatened to sign herself out of the hospital and the AF as well!"

It was clear he was trying to get his version of events in before he was blamed for not helping catch the person who did this to a Generals daughter.

"This true Sam?" Hammond asked, not bothering to correct his relationship with the doctor, he didn't like the man already and he hadn't known him 30 seconds!

"Yes, Uncle George" Sam said, she looked straight at him, her piercing blue eyes saying that if he pushed her she would do it.

"Uncle… Oh sorry sir, I thought you were General Carter" spluttered the man.

The door opened and he was saved from any further embarrassment by the arrival of Dr. Fraiser.

"Sirs," she nodded to both the senior officers "could you please vacate the room for a while, I need to change some dressings"

"Captain!" Said the Colonel "You can't tell a General to get out. You will have to come back later and change the dressings" he made a shooing motion at her

"No sir," she dragged a dressing trolley in behind her "it needs doing now, so if you gentlemen don't mind…" Uncle George got up

"How long do you need Doctor?" Sam could tell he liked her, his voice had a touch of respect in it, even though she was 'only' a Captain

"Thirty minutes should do it, sir" she said "commissary is down two floors to the west of the building, by the time you have had a light breakfast there you should be fine to come back in" Sam smiled slightly at the woman, Uncle George never ate breakfast, Aunt Mary had always been trying to make him eat 'the most important meal of the day'.

"He won't have any breakfast" she whispered but not low enough, the General gave her a friendly scowl

"He'd better" the doctor said "I don't want him passing out because of low blood sugar. Sir, you REALLY don't want to end up a patient of mine, especially if it is only because you will not eat correctly, I save all the biggest needles for people like that" she smiled up at him and the Colonel spluttered in the corner.

"Captain that is insubordination, you can consider yourself on report!"

"For doing her job?" the General said, Sam was watching in glee, she knew he hated toadies, "I'm sure she is supposed to stop us getting ill as much as helping make us better if we do" he looked at the Colonel until he got a nod of acceptance. And the gesturing to him to lead the way he followed the obnoxious man out, turning and giving her a wink at the door.

"I like him!" said the doctor

"He's the best," said Sam fondly "I've known him most of my life, he and my dad flew together in 'nam and they have kept bumping into each other ever since, he's a good man and a great commanding officer if you believe everyone who has ever worked under him"

The doctor changed the strapping holding her ribs together, and some dressings that were covering her abused anus, and gave her a quick wipe with a face cloth before handing her a mirror and a comb. "Want to look good for when he comes back" she said "according to the sign in sheet he arrived about 02:00 and has been sat here ever since" she explained

Sam and the doctor spent a while just talking, about everything and nothing, and especially not about her attack or her injuries, an orderly came in and removed the trolley with the spare dressings and the contaminate bin, and Sam saw the doctor eyeing his six as he left.

"All the orderlies that gorgeous?" she asked "or am I getting special treatment because I'm a Generals daughter?"

The doctor laughed and they spent a good fifteen minutes discussing what made a good looking man, actually they had virtually the same taste, before Uncle George came back in, he smiled at them both from the door.

"It's good to hear you laugh Sam," he said. He gave a slight bow to the doctor "thank you for standing up for her, you won't hear anything about that insubordination charge, I threatened to report him to the medical board if he put his ass kissing above the welfare of his patients again"

Fraiser snorted at the language Uncle George used. "Thank you sir, did you enjoy your breakfast?" she cocked her head slightly at him

"Yes, well," he said nervously "I only have a few more hours then I have to report back" Sam smiled, he hadn't had anything to eat, she knew it! Her smile slid straight off her face at what he said next "Your father is sorry he can't make it Sam, he is really busy at the moment" he closed his eyes avoiding her gaze

"Not your fault Uncle George" she comforted him "He will send a note to my funeral one day, he will be too busy to come in person." The doctor looked shocked and she switched her gaze to the Generals face.

Uncle George just nodded sadly "he DOES love you, you know, it just isn't easy for him"

"Poor him" she said coldly

"You look so much like your mother, it's painful for him, he is proud of you, and he DOES love you" if he kept saying it he may start to believe it, she thought, he would be the only one who did!

"Can you do me a favour Uncle George, get me a new contacts form?" he looked at her puzzled "that Colonel-doctor was all for ordering me to obey an order I couldn't obey because of my dad being who he is. Could you scrub it for me, get rid of next of kin and put yourself down as contact? I don't want every EMT and quack getting hold of The General, but if anything serious happens I need you to deal with it"

Uncle George looked at her sadly and agreed, he had no choice, if he didn't do it, she had every right to.


	15. Chapter 15

**15**

**Present Day**

"I broke it off and… Jonas didn't agree" she had to tone it down, the only two people on base who knew about it could be trusted, and Jonas wouldn't say anything as it was still an open case. But her reaction had told them there was something more than a split. "There was a… a…an … argument, he started throwing things" things like me "and the people in the apartment below us called in the police, he was taken out in cuffs. He was not happy about that either" she had the picture of him being carried out in her mind.

"Did he threaten to cause you injury Captain Carter" Teal'c was looking at her sympathetically but there didn't seem to be any pity in his eyes, just understanding, it was easy to forget he had lived over three times as long as she had, he looked to be the same age.

"He said some things… but do you think I would allow anyone to hurt me Teal'c?" she had to be careful, both the Colonel and Teal'c could probably spot a lie, so if she just didn't tell the whole truth she would be safe.

She glanced at the Colonel, he seemed to be thinking about something, his eyes unfocussed slightly, she wondered what it was, she was hoping he wasn't thinking of doing anything about or to Jonas, all that would do would cause him to retaliate, and she knew who he would blame, and who he would punish.

"Anyway, I can avoid him, he has had plenty of time to calm down by now. I don't want any unpleasantness at work, and we will be on different rotations anyway, half our downtime he will be offworld, and he won't need the science labs anyway." Was she trying to persuade them or herself she wondered? No, she wouldn't lie to herself, she couldn't avoid him, but here and now she had friends that she had lacked before. During the time they were seeing each other he had isolated her, by insulting her friends and making them put a distance between them. That was why it took her so long to get out of it, no one to turn to.

"The General doesn't seem pleased to hear he is on base, but he is stuck with him for now. I am sure you won't have any problems with him Captain." O'Neill looked straight at her, he seemed to be trying to convince her she was safe just by the look, and oddly enough, she did feel slightly better, she looked at the men, Daniel holding her hand, giving physical reassurance, Teal'c giving her a steady presence that she felt would protect her without diminishing her self worth, and the Colonel seemed to be holding her together emotionally, strange as that seemed.

Something occurred to her "Wait… you said I was still listed as next of kin?" Why? Why wouldn't he change it? But the Colonel nodded confirmation, "you also said he was a Captain? He was a last year!" She would have thought that he would have thrown the service in rather than take a demotion, but in what other job could he indulge his passion for cruelty?

"I'll look into it. I thought it was strange a Captain being in charge of a team" O'Neill said, then the silly man said "now, how about we go get some cake, it's amazing how much a decent slice of cake can help." she smiled at him. He could be such an ass at times, but actually cake sounded good, and Jello sounded better!

"Yes sir" she said and tried to get free from Daniels grip "you can let go now" she told him

"No I don't think so" he replied, she looked at their hands, then up at him, what did he mean?

"Daniel" Jack said "She doesn't want to walk through the corridors with you holding her hand, people will talk" he glared at the younger man to let go.

"On one condition" a condition?

"What condition?" both the Colonel and she asked

Daniel held out both his arms to her, but didn't attempt to step closer. "I could use a hug" he said. Sam looked at him for a couple of seconds, this was Daniel, he wouldn't hurt a fly, she was safe with him… 'keep telling yourself that' she thought as she stepped into his embrace. He carefully enfolded her in his arms, letting her know she could move if she wanted to, but once he was hugging her she really DID feel safe! This was one of the steps the therapist Janet had pushed her to see, had mentioned. She enjoyed the hold for almost a minute and then pushed away and turned to go with her team to lunch!

It was over a week before she saw 'HIM' and during that time Teal'c had hardly left her side. He greeted her at the lift doors when she arrived and sat in her lab with her until lunch, he was to one side of her where ever she went, be it control room or down to Siler's tool workshop. He was not obviously hovering and she was fascinated by the descriptions of the technologies he had seen, even if he could not give her any specifications as to how they worked. She showed him how to access the internet, and got him a TV for his room, she hooked up a cable link for him so he could have '200 channels with nothing to watch' and then she had to explain the phrase.

She had just about started to get comfortable with the thought of Jonas when she was pulled up sharply by his actual physical presence! She was walking down the corridor, this time she had Daniel with her on one side and Teal'c on the other, Daniel was telling her some minor details he had remembered about Ra's ship, and Teal'c was filling in bits he knew, she was looking from one side to the other as they almost filled the entire span of the corridor. She looked up and he was there, stood dead centre waiting for her to notice him, a smile all over his face.

"Sam!" he sounded delighted, she wanted to vomit with fear, she turned her back an quickly walked away, the two men either side must have realised what was wrong because as she heard a pair of boots come towards her Teal'c's voice echoed down the hallway.

"I believe Captain Carter does not wish to talk to you Captain Hanson" he said

"Of course she does" she heard Jonas, and she turned to face him "get out of my way before I hurt you" he said to Teal'c

She started laughing. He was a good three inches shorter, fifty pounds lighter, and even without that she had seen Teal'c hold a marine, who was of Teal'c's size, with one hand while the man was possessed by a virus that made him extra violent and strong. "You are going to hurt HIM?" Oh GOD! She never thought she would dare to laugh at Jonas, but she couldn't help it!

She watched as he went from surprised at her reaction to downright furious, he swung a fist at Teal'c while bringing up his knee at the same time, Teal'c just grabbed him by the front of his jacket and lifted him straight off the floor, he held him in mid air, a good six inches from the ground, with one hand. She saw Jonas' face pale slightly as the big black man turned around to her.

"What would you like me to do with this man Captain Carter?" he asked, he looked back at his captive "On Chulak I would be within my rights to break both his legs and both his arms as that is what he attacked me with" he faced her again, and she wasn't 100 that if she had agreed he wouldn't have done it.

A couple of SFs came around the corner at a run and Hanson shouted at them that he was being attacked. They pulled up short and one of them looked at Teal'c "Excuse me sir, if you would put him back on the floor, we can take him from here"

Jonas' face was a picture! Teal'c looked at her and she nodded and he let go of the man, dropping him. The SFs got one to either side and the one who hadn't spoken yet said "The General would like to see you in his office, sir" his voice half way between cold and contemptuous. Jonas looked as if he was going to say something, but then he turned away and went with the detail to see the boss.

"Whatya doin' kids?" came the lazy drawl from behind them, Sam spun to see O'Neill leaning on the wall of the corridor, looking sexy as hell she thought in the very depths of her mind.

"We have just met Captain Hanson O'Neill" said Teal'c calmly, Sam was still having problems breathing.

"I know, who do you think sent the SFs?" he said, looking at her, she questioned him with her eyes "I've been in the security station watching him since he arrived, waiting for it" he explained. Somewhere she had a feeling she should object to all this protection, but actually she felt safe! For the first time in over a year she felt SAFE! She remembered Jonas' face when Teal'c lifted him up, and she started laughing again.

"Come on" Jack said, not quite grabbing her by the sleeve, but hovering within millimetres of it "I think you need some coffee and Jello" and she walked off with 'her men'


	16. Chapter 16

**16**

**Jack**

He was shocked as all hell when 'the meeting' finally happened, everyone had been on tenter hooks for the whole week, he had square eyes from the damn video surveillance, and when it happened she had laughed at him! Of course the look on his face as he was held half a foot off the floor WAS funny, but for someone with such a violent reaction to the news he was coming she seemed… normal.

He was proud of her. A lot of women would have tried to lock themselves away. But not her! His brave beautiful 2IC had come out the other side of fear and ended up laughing at its cause. Not in a hysterical manner, nor being derogatory, she genuinely found it funny and he could not help but join her. Daniel was laughing as well and even Teal'c cracked a smile, a large one.

He guided them down the hall to the commissary, before excusing himself and going to sit in on the meeting with the General.

He found Hanson waiting outside the Generals office, still flanked by the two Security Force men, and one of them gave him a nod in the direction of the office. He acknowledged it and knocked on the door, waited for permission and walked in.

The General had the view of the corridor on his lap top screen and it was paused at the point where Hanson was in the air, the security lads had just seen him and had their mouths open, Daniel was wide eyed, Teal'c looked totally unaffected by it all even though he was holding a 200lb man at arms length, off the ground, and Sam was bent over with her hands on her knees laughing!

"Bit of an unexpected reaction" the General said, nodding his head at Sam, smiling

"She's one in a million sir" he answered a grin on his face as well, "in fact she is one in a million million sir"

"About Hanson…" the mood sobered, "What do you suggest? I have already mentioned I am reluctant to do anything official, and don't want anything unofficial happening with Teal'c, I don't want those people with less than high moral standards to get him." Jack agreed 100 but Hanson couldn't go around swinging his fists when he didn't get his own way, he was, after all, only a Captain.

"Friendly warning?" he offered "a quick word pointing out the security cameras and make sure that there's no way he finds out where she's living"

"She's moved back onto base" the General said sadly. "She gave up her apartment last week and actually made the move official this morning, he really scared her Jack, I'm just glad to see she survived that first meeting, nothing will be as bad for her again, unless he gets hold of her"

Jacks blood boiled again, but he looked at the screen and at her bending down trying to get her breath because she was laughing so hard. "She will be looking for another place before long Sir. I'm sure of it."

The General looked thoughtful and made a note on a legal pad on his desk, then looked up at Jack again… "Ok, let's have him in" he said.

Jack got up and opened the door and directed the SF detail to escort their charge into the room, he was 100 hard ass, by-the-book AF Colonel, the SFs gave him a grin once they were out of Hanson's line of sight and took a step back, in perfect synchronisation.

The Generals screen was still visible from Hanson's side of the table, as Jack walked around to stand at his COs shoulder. "Can you explain to me why you attempted to assault a member of this facility Captain?" Hammond said

"The man insulted me Sir" Hanson stated, the General pressed a key and the sound of Sam's laughter flooded out of the speakers. Hanson paled, the cameras had sound, he was probably counting on them being mute, Jack thought.

"I think you know who I am Captain" Hammond said, "I did attend a small party for your engagement once" Jack was surprised, but didn't let it show on his face, maybe knowing what he did, he shouldn't have been. However it was obvious that Hanson had not remembered! "Though I am not sure you were sober enough during the party to actually remember anything" the older man added in contempt.

Jack could see the wheels turning, as Hanson tried to remember the guest list and he finally figured it out "Uncle George" he said under his breath, he had the look of a doomed man.

"I have had a word with the CO of the people involved in the fracas today," he indicated Jack at his shoulder, "and he has suggested we put you on probation. If you can hold your temper for three months you will be allowed full command of a team, in the mean time I am assigning you to SG9 in co-command with Captain Frakes. If there is another incident reported, involving you in any way, even if you happen to be passing when it happens, you will find yourself in Leavenworth." Hanson raised his brow at this "Don't forget this is a top secret, national security base, if you are charged with LITTERING here you would end up THERE" Hammond wasn't kidding, usually only serious crimes lead to a stay at the Castle, but if there could be a threat to National Security, no matter which service you were in, you ended up at the same place!

Hanson seemed to get the message, and after standing under the full glare of his CO for a couple of minutes was dismissed.

Jack took his own leave and went to see if Carter had left any dessert for him.

Less than a week later Jack was busy in his office when someone knocked on the door, he had removed the nameplate so no one would bother him if he was in there, he had enough problems getting around to his paperwork, he hated that side of his job. The last thing he wanted was to be interrupted, especially as the General had asked for his report from the last mission, and he wanted it before Jack went home!

He was sure he had written it once, but it was nowhere to be found, and it had been a few weeks since, he should have handed it in by now. Anyway, he wasn't going to get much done, whoever it was was still knocking, pretending he wasn't in, wasn't working!

"Come" he shouted, hoping that whoever it was would get the message from the tone of his voice, but when the door opened, Teal'c stepped in.

"O'Neill, I apologise for disturbing you at this time" he nodded towards the paper littered all over the desk

"S'OK Teal'c, what's wrong?"

"I have to report a problem, with Captain Hanson" SHIT! Jack stood up and headed for the door, but the other man didn't move, Jack looked at him "I was in the gymnasium earlier today, with Captain Carter, I believe the term she used was 'working out' though what she worked out I am not certain" Jack made hurry up gestures with his hands, but he was not to be rushed. "We had been exercising for twenty minutes when Captain Hanson walked into the room. He sat on a bench and watched Captain Carter until she left and went to the locker room to shower" stalker! Jack thought.

"When I met her outside the locker room Captain Hanson was stood at the end of the corridor, watching again. I advanced towards him and he left. We met with Daniel Jackson and all agreed on 'a snack' so we went to the commissary, we had just sat down when Captain Hanson walked in and sat directly in Captain Carters line of sight. She left immediately and when we arrived back at her lab there was a paper on the table. She was not pleased by its contents and it was only when I said I would call you that she read it to me" he was learning to read English, but it was not an easy language, and with him using the internet as well, sometimes his spelling was suspect "the message said 'he cannot be everywhere at all times' It was unsigned" Like that made a difference, they knew who it was from.

"You left her to come tell me?"

"Captain Carter is running a 'gate diagnostic and assures me that she will be there, with the General for at least three hours" three hours eh? With the General looking over his 'niece' and not watching the video feed, Jack looked at the big man, each reading the others thoughts.

"Let's go" He headed for the door, but Teal'c barred his way

"A moment O'Neill, I would point out to you that if you touch this man in any way he will report you" so…? And…?

"You can't do anything Teal'c, you don't want to end up with Kennedy and his grave robbers"

"I swear I will not harm him in any way" The big man said, tilting his head slightly, Jack tried to work out what he was NOT telling him "physically" Teal'c added, and Jack grinned and nodded.

They headed out and found Hanson as they had expected near the control room, waiting to be seen. O'Neill called him while Teal'c stood around the corner out of sight, and as Hanson came towards the corner, Jack shoved him into the heads, Teal'c followed and then Jack stood outside making sure they were undisturbed. Less than fifteen minutes later Hanson exited the room, looking as if he needed to vomit, Teal'c with a slightly smug smile on his face followed.

"I believe that Captain Hanson has seen the error of his ways" Jack was impressed, the man was a special forces veteran, they had strong stomachs, Jack knew first hand, he knew you didn't even get selected if you got queasy. To not only make someone like that ill but to do it in only fifteen minutes! Jack wanted to know what Teal'c had said, then again, maybe he didn't.


	17. Chapter 17

**17**

**Sam**

Hanson didn't live long enough to cause Sam much bother, his first assignment he 'flipped' and decided he was God! She had a troubling time with him when he wanted her to help fix a machine to prove his power, and he happened to mention that she was going to be his Goddess, but even though he was quite mad, he did not hold the same terror for her as he once had. Before he had been cold and calculating, when she met him for almost the last time he was ranting. She had thought that she would not be able to cope without the physical presence of her team, but she proved herself to be stronger than she thought. The only thing she could not do was shoot him when he told her to.

When she recounted the experience Jack told her he understood, it was one thing to kill someone in the heat of battle, it was something else to be stood toe to toe with someone you knew well and shoot them while they watched. Jack said he sincerely hoped that she NEVER had to actually pull the trigger in that situation, in fact he said he hoped HE never had to find out if he could either.

Sam continued to heal emotionally as she had physically.

In life certain things stand out as landmarks, and over the next few months Sam's life saw several. When the energy version of O'Neill had to be traced Sam found out some of the painful background that made the Colonel who he was, and she met his ex-wife, if only briefly, but she was a tall blonde with short hair and blue eyes, and Daniel mentioned how much they looked alike, though she couldn't see it herself.

When the Colonel was 'killed' by Apophis she disregarded everything she knew about combat situations and broke cover to head for him, getting herself 'killed' in the process. Thankfully the wise and pacifist people of the planet had brought them back from the dead, she had only jumped slightly when she woke and Daniel was touching bare skin on her stomach, lucky for him it was through the staff blast hole or she would have broken his fingers, substitute little brother or not!

Next on the landmarks was when Jack had slept with the 35 day old woman Sam had been jealous to hell. He hadn't even had the decency to get a private room! Anyone could have walked in, and she almost did until Daniel stopped her at the door. As the Colonel began to age she was ordered back to earth. She worked like mad to find a cure, eventually she, with some help from him back in the palace, managed to work it out and get him back to 'normal' but she thought back to the lecture about drink and vowed to stick to rations, as did he.

As soon as the debrief was over for the Colonel, Uncle George called her into his office, his niece, a real blood relation, had got herself a new job in LA and was going to be moving, she had a 20 year lease with 10 remaining on it on a neat little bungalow in the suburbs closest to the mountain, did Sam want to go look at it in view to having her own place again? Sam did indeed! She had been looking for a few weeks for an apartment or small house, she went to view it and loved it immediately. Another good thing was that Julie was moving in less than a week, and Daniel and Teal'c helped her move her things out of storage while Jack 'grew young' again!

Then Daniel died! Somehow it was more shocking that it was Daniel they lost than it would have been if it had been one of the others. After all they were soldiers. The emotional impact of losing one of her supports was devastating to her. In the post mission medical she couldn't stop shaking, she felt so bereft, she watched the two men being dismissed to their quarters but she had to be sedated. She hated being drugged, it made her feel as if she was not in control, but Janet stayed by her side and that helped to anchor her.

Janet escorted her to the briefing room when it was time, but had to stop at the door, as there was a death involved everyone was interviewed separately, she couldn't even lean on Teal'c's steady presence to help her through it. The sedatives still in her system helped her put on an 'appropriate' face, and she kept repeating what her Father had said when he mother died 'people have their own grief at times like this, they do not need to be burdened with everyone else's' so like a good little soldier she sucked it up and reported like a robot. After the interview though she stumbled out of the room and pushed past the waiting doctor, she was never sure how she made it to her quarters but once there she collapsed in hysterical sobs. Janet found her and sedated her once again.

Though Uncle George was not really cut from the same cloth as her father she heard from the doctor that he had been going to put them back into rotation straight away, it was only by the tiny woman being stubborn that they got a week off.

Of course during that week they had to attend the memorial service for Daniel, she was lucky she did not have to speak at the service, it was all she could do to follow the protocol, Janet stood by her side as Jack and Teal'c did the presenting of the flag (Daniel being given special dispensation for a full military service) and she was wooden and numb as she and the Colonel placed the wreath into the event horizon of the 'gate.

She almost fell totally apart the rest of the week, only the drugs Janet was providing getting her through the wake that Jack insisted on. But she was sure she would wake screaming for the rest of her life as she replayed Daniel burning to death every time she closed her eyes. It was not until the team were in his apartment that she realised she was not the only one suffering from it. As she recounted her nightmare to the two men she never noticed that she had allowed Jack to hold her, even though it was lightly, all through it. As they were talking she started to feel more and more out of control, and Jack wasn't helping, he was getting worked up himself.

He couldn't do this to her! She needed him to be normal while she fought to find stable ground. He hurried them all back to the base and made them head for the infirmary. Janet listened to everything he said and ordered immediate scans. Sam sat on her 'usual' bed hugging her knees until she was called to get the results. Janet was mid explanation when the 'gate activation notice echoed down the hall into the room, and without thought she turned and ran!

When she got to the 'gate room she noticed that the rest of the team were with her, but they were not following her, they had run there the same way she had, involuntarily.

Sam actually believed she could see Daniel! She was definitely going insane, there was no other explanation for it. Then Janet caught up with them and asked what had happened and it shocked her when Teal'c said he had thought Daniel was returning. For someone that was supposedly no good with words the Colonel explained to both Janet and Uncle George the conflict she was feeling, and the way he said it, with Teal'c silently agreeing made her feel confused and hopeful at the same time. If she was going insane it was nothing to do with past traumas and emotional crutches, as both these friends had the same symptoms!

Then Jack became incapacitated by pain in his head and had to be helped out of the room. Once again Sam spent the night in the infirmary. The following day on medical advice Dr. Mackenzie was brought in. He wasn't Janet's first choice, she confided in Sam, but he was good at his job, if a little unimaginative.

They were gathered around the briefing room table and he started playing wave sounds, the same tape she had used over a year ago to help learn relaxation techniques. As she had been using the tape in her quarters and at home, the couple of times she had gone to feed the cat, she knew it was not going to work. The Colonel of course would not relax at the best of times, or rather not relax in that way, as it did involve a slight giving up conscious control, and he wouldn't give a millimetre in that direction. However, her large alien friend was another matter, Teal'c had explained all about the meditation he performed on an almost daily basis, and from her watching him a couple of times, she knew his concentration went far past anything she would ever achieve.

Everyone was watching him as he jumped away from the table shouting "Kree Tak!" what ever that meant! They all believed he was both dead AND alive and the General, in full General mode threatened to refuse them active status unless they could sort it out! She NEEDED to be doing something! She was going mad sitting thinking about nothing else but Daniel, she needed to get back to work, but no matter how she asked Janet the medic would not pass her fit, not even for light duties. And worse, they were now confined to base, just in case! In case what, no one would answer.


	18. Chapter 18

**18**

The next day was almost exactly the same, briefing room, SG1, Uncle George, Mackenzie and this time Janet as well. The Colonel went over the mission again, recounting exactly what happened, but this time the General had a look in his eye as he listened to the tale. She knew that look, it was the one he had when he had worked something out that had been puzzling him. As Jack started to sound tired the General told him to bear with him.

"How long do you estimate you were on the other side of the 'gate?" He asked, the Colonel thought about it and said

"20 minutes, 25 maybe"

Sam thought that maybe it was slightly longer, and said "Half hour, tops"

"Teal'c?" he asked and Teal'c agreed to their estimates, and then the General said something shocking!

"You were gone almost 4 hours!" Everyone looked at him shocked, and Sam thought about it, nope it did not make sense, she had a great time sense, she couldn't have gone that far wrong and she had seen the Colonel wake within 2 minutes of when he said he would when he lay down to sleep. They just could not be that wrong!

"I don't think that's possible sir" she said

"I can show you the mission logs if you want" he offered them

"What happened to the other three and a half hours?" asked the Colonel

Mackenzie had an idea "I've had a great deal of success with hypnosis" he said, Sam breathed in deeply, she knew where this would lead. The Colonel could NOT be hypnotised, he wouldn't have been allowed into special forces if he could, he was also resistant to most mind altering drugs as well as the other techniques. Teal'c may have been a candidate, but he was not even human and there was a chance that the symbiote in his pouch protected him… no she was the only one with a history of successful hypnosis, even though it was before she joined the AF. She damn well hated giving up control, even though she knew she could trust the people around her now! But if she didn't do it… they would never find out if Daniel was alive and it would end her career. She realised she had zoned out of the conversation and was brought back with a yank when the Colonel mentioned going back.

She vaguely heard Teal'c snap "NO!" and without even wanting to open her mouth she said

"Sir, we can't do that" and then she wondered where the hell that had come from! Everyone around the table was looking at her "I… don't know why I just said that" she lowered her eyes to the table top.

"If that isn't a conditioned response, I don't know what is." Said the shrink sat next to her, this was it, she was going to have to step up.

"So someone has been messing with our heads." The Colonel said, sounding justifiably upset, after all if you have spent your whole life in total control, to find out someone had altered you without you even knowing about it was… frightening… even for someone as brave as her CO

"Colonel, I have had some experience in hypnosis, in an undergrad Psych. course. Let me take a shot at it." She was praying for him to say no, but when the General looked at him he gestured with his hands as if to say 'go ahead' she turned to the doctors sitting to her left and said "I volunteer" what she didn't say was 'I don't want to do this!' but she was thinking it!

Later that evening Mackenzie called her and told her he was ready to try, he had set up a room with a lamp that pulsed at a sympathetic rate, but she stood on the threshold and couldn't go in. She didn't know this man, she could feel the bile rising in her stomach at the thought of being with someone she didn't know while they had partial control of her! She couldn't do it! She took a step back, straight into her CO!

He brought up his hands and held her upper arms so she was slightly pressed against him, he bent down and in a low voice, one meant only for her ears, he said "I understand how… unsettling this is Sam, say the word and we will cancel it" he paused and then said "I know I may not be first choice, but I will sit with you through this if you want" he was trying to say he knew she would rather have Daniel there! But he was wrong, she could feel the solid body behind her supporting her, his hands were holding her just right, and he understood! She wasn't sure Daniel would have understood her reluctance to give up this kind of control, but he did.

She nodded her head and in the same low tone said "please, don't leave, no matter what" he let go of her and they both walked in.

"Please sit here" Mackenzie said indicating the chair under the lamp, she looked around and saw a couple of stools pushed back into the corners and she nodded towards one for the Colonel. "You can leave now Colonel" the shrink said

"Yes, I can" was the reply as he sat down "but I am not going to" he only became a grammar Nazi when he was off balance, either upset or angry.

The shrink shot him a glare, but as he was only a Major there was nothing he could do about it, especially as it was obvious Sam wanted him there! She sat up stiffly in the chair and then tried to relax her muscle groups one at a time, as she had been taught, you cannot hypnotise someone who is tense.

"Colonel I cannot emphasis enough that you need to be silent" Mackenzie said, and the Colonel put down whatever it was he had picked up behind her back, she gave a small internal smile, some things were totally normal! There was a pause, almost a half a minute while she finished relaxing, and she heard the voice say "You're now completely relaxed." Yes she was! For the first time in ages "I want you to go back to the day you last saw Daniel, he's with you now."

"Can you see it?" he asked her

"Yes." She saw flames! Oh god oh god it was her nightmare again! "He's burning!!" She started to struggle out of the hypnosis, but the calming voice interrupted the struggle

"No. Go back further, you've just arrived." She breathed in deeply "Now look around, and tell me where you are."

She opened her eyes and could see the planet, actually it was a moon, she could see the planet they were orbiting in the sky, there were a total of four other moons as well, in the half sphere she could see, in front of her was… "Water."

"You're standing next to Water?" the guide moved the vision forwards 

"Salt water." It was a guess at this point, but looking at the sheer expanse of it it just had to be brine.

ALL of SG-1 walked down the beach towards the water. Small volcanoes erupting all around them, but nothing to be afraid of, there didn't look to be any magma flow, just an occasional gas escape that flashed a flame like a Bunsen burner when you first light it, but as soon as the gas was consumed the flame died.

She heard her CO "Looks like some kind of…ocean."

She put down her sample box and got out a couple of empty vials so she could collect some sand, and water and maybe even basalt and pumice, Teal'c looked around, there was nothing interrupting the view in any direction until the curve of the earth, moon, caused loss of vision.

The Colonel was doing the same and Daniel was using his camcorder to do a 360° sweep, of… absolutely nothing.

She had just got a nice piece of the hard rock, big enough to study, small enough to fit in the container, when she heard Daniels voice, "What's that thing out there?" She stood and moved forwards, looking in the direction Daniel was fixed on. "did you see that?" he asked everyone

Sam spotted what he was talking about and realised something, "It's coming right towards us" a bow wave developed and soon they could see it was a … being… rather than a vessel, it was closer than it had looked too! Suddenly the surface was broken by the… being… and he/she/it stepped onto the beach.

The creature was blue! And was sort of reptilian, dressed in a blue net, that covered nothing at all! Not that there was anything to cover. … It looked at Daniel and then seemed to see Teal'c it approached him and laid a webbed hand on the Jaffa's belly, right where the symbiote was hidden from view.

Teal'c allowed the liberty and then the creature gave a start and moved backwards, so he had all four of them in his field of vision. He gestured to Daniel and bent to the beach and made some marks in the smooth sand. He stood and watched.

Daniel looked at it and recognition came over his face "erm… it's cuneiform" he explained to them, Jack gave a vague shrug, she very much doubted he had never heard of the language but she agreed that it meant little to nothing to them. "I think he is asking if we are from the world that built Babylon"

Daniel opened his mouth and then realised that he had no idea how to verbalise it correctly, he could translate it, but no one had any idea how the language itself was spoken, so he got to one knee and started 'writing' himself.

The alien looked at the marks in the sand, but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking, Daniel fell back on his old routine and started to introduce everyone and the creature made a loud noise and… suddenly she was cold and wet and restrained, it was dark, she could see bubbles, and from the corner of her eye she could see the others… no she could see the Colonel and Teal'c… then the alien! She started to panic, she had to get to the water! Quickly! "We gotta get to the water!"

She didn't realise she was shouting that last phrase, she was trapped in the past, "Captain" a voice said, it didn't fit the surroundings,

"We gotta get out of here!" She shouted! And then she was swimming "Captain!" and she jumped from the chair

"Captain" came the doctors voice again as she broke out of the hypnosis Jack was there, he grabbed her as she panicked and realised what had happened

"Oh god Colonel we left him behind!" he pulled her into a tight hug "We left him behind" she said, heartbroken


	19. Chapter 19

**19**

"_Oh god Colonel we left him behind!" he pulled her into a tight hug "We left him behind" she said, heartbroken_

"I know" he said holding her close, he moved his hands soothing her and rocking her from side to side, she clung to him drawing strength from the embrace, "It's alright" he was almost whispering "we're going back" he put one hand to the back of her neck, holding her head into his shoulder "we're going back" he repeated even softer, she felt him nod slightly at the doctor and she heard him move away out of the room, but she could not let go of her CO! He dipped his face into the junction of her neck and shoulders and kept holding her. She was pathetic! But at the moment she didn't care, she needed the comfort of being held and she felt his lips brush the side of her neck and she moved her head to one side to give him better access, he didn't kiss her but every so often he would move and she would feel his lips touch her skin and his breath move her hair slightly and suddenly she realised that being upset over Daniel was not the only reason for her increased rate of respiration.

She slowly, deliberately, calmed herself down, she could feel the evidence of his arousal pressing against her stomach. She straightened, trying not to stiffen up, and took half a step back, out of his embrace "thank you sir" she whispered and turned and left the room quickly. Back in her quarters she recited the Frat Regs to herself a couple of times while she had a quick cold shower and changed her underwear and then she headed for the locker room to see if her clean desert cammo BDUs had been put into her locker and she changed into them when she found them there.

She headed for the armoury to specify what she wanted, and included a couple of extra C4 blocks and some grenades, concussion waves from grenades could stun at quite a long range in water. The Master Sergeant packed everything onto a trolley already containing some P90s and a sidearm Teal'c always took his own weapon to the 'gate room but under orders the SG teams didn't arm until they were actually ready to embark, no one wanted loads of weapons with live ammo in the corridors, so they got them as they stepped into the room and handed them off to a SF when they returned before leaving it.

Everything worked out on the moon, and Daniel was returned safe and sound. After his medical and debrief she went to his lab and found him sitting there looking at all the boxes that Jack had brought back from his apartment. Even though they had thought him dead Jack had not got rid of a single possession, he had even marked the sofa as "classified" and had it shipped to a big empty room on level 23. She stepped into a huge hug and pondered the differences between the two human males of her team. Daniel was reassuring, strong, and supportive. But totally different from her CO. She tried to imagine herself kissing Daniel, not a peck on the cheek, KISSING him and she got the same internal reaction she expected she would have got from thinking of kissing Mark! It wasn't that he was not good looking, he WAS, a load of the nurses (four of them male) agreed on it! But she just could not see him that way. Her boss on the other hand… FRAT REGS! She stopped comparing them and started helping Daniel find a new place to live.

**Neutral**

The two girls spent several Friday nights at Janet's apartment getting drunk and voting on the various aspects of the various men. When you got an average of five women per 200 men on base at any one time, there were a lot of candidates in the 'best rear' category. The later the evening, the more wine they drank and the more Janet noticed Colonel O'Neill won every category, even the ones he had lost earlier when Sam was sober! The small medic didn't say anything, nothing about the regs, nothing as a 'friendly word of advice' she just was happy to see the girl relax around men, or at least talking about them!

Then came a blow to the base, their first 'foothold' situation, a beautiful redhead wearing as little as possible enchanted the men with some sort of drug. When Sam, Janet and Teal'c rounded up all the women working that day and went to arrest her, they were stopped by their own men putting their bodies in the path of any shot! The girls ended up being the ones confined.

"Maybe it's just me," Sam said to Janet during this time "but I can't figure out how to feel like one of the guys with these guys, I always feel like I'm the girl" Janet looked at her as if to point out she WAS the girl, and she should be proud of that fact, when the thought disappeared as she realised that she had a way out of the cell.

Jack went mad at her when he heard that she and Janet had had to seduce some SFs to get out of the cell. Especially when in the post… invasion? … medical, Janet mentioned how Sam was clothed at the time. Actually Sam was fully clothed, and she only touched the mans face before slamming her forearm into his nose and knocking him silly, but Janet had seen the sparks between the tough untouchable Colonel and the once badly battered young woman who had become her friend, and she wasn't above 'stirring the pot' So she had had Sam almost stripped as she lured the unsuspecting guard into oblivion, luckily she didn't mention the guards name or she though the Colonel would have tracked him down and hurt him.

Then Daniel caught her kissing Narim, she couldn't explain why she felt safe, "I felt his feelings using a feelings recorder" just didn't cut it and she certainly was not going to violate Narims privacy by asking him to allow Daniel to try the device himself! Daniel didn't realise that she felt safe with Narim because of the Tollan technology, she knew he was literally incapable of harm, he didn't understand aggression at all, and though she knew how he felt for her, she felt a lack of real passion in him. His emotions were controlled tightly, but you cannot suppress one extreme and allow yourself another, when getting rid of anger and violence they had lost something from the other end of the spectrum. There was no way Sam could have considered Narim as anything but a friend really, he didn't have that spark she needed!

And then it happened… the mission that changed everything between them.


	20. Chapter 20

**20**

**Sam**

Daniel dialled the gate while she and the Colonel fired to either side of him, Teal'c swung from one side of the 'gate to the other and wherever he fired there was a pause, as if he was making them duck for cover. She heard the Colonel shouting to Daniel, "As soon as it opens RUN, we are closer than you!" It took less than thirty seconds for the wormhole to open and she could see blasts of energy hitting the ring, though none seemed to go through to Earth.

Daniel followed the 'kawoosh' as she had heard Colonel O'Neill refer to it, back to the ring and was going through as soon as it stabilised. Teal'c was about five feet away from the event horizon by the time Daniel went through and she and the Colonel were about ten to fifteen, with shouts of "GO GO GO!" in their ears they turned and ran after the two team members who had already been swallowed up by the journey home.

She felt a concussion and a wave of heat as she hit the horizon herself and then…

She came to her senses again in an ice cave!

She lay still for a moment, assessing the damage and realised that it was minor, she had hurt herself worse sparring with Teal'c. A couple of bruises, and not even very big ones and that was all. She got to her feet and took off her helmet and looked around, it was very dark, but the light from her torch was bouncing off the highly reflective ice and illuminated a lot. She could see something on the floor to one side and hurried over, it was the Colonel!

She shook him gently making sure she did not disturb his spine, just in case, and she got no reaction at all. She noticed he had not got his helmet on, and thinking about it was not sure he had it on when they left, he may have just had his cap on! That made it likely that the impact as they came out of the 'gate at high speed could have caused him to have a concussion. Just to make sure she put her fingers to his throat, he was alive. Slow steady pulse, the sign of an athlete. His leg was at an unnatural angle but she dare not start pulling him about until he was conscious, better his leg start mending crooked and have to be rebroken than her causing him to be paralysed for the rest of his life. She covered him with the blanket from her pack and looked around.

She shone her torch all over but could not see the others. She could see the shape of the shockwave in the cavern as it had disintegrated the ice as the event horizon formed, she climbed over every ridge unto she got to the furthest point and found no sign of the other half of SG1. Then about half way back she checked her watch, assuming she had been doing this for the full 90 minutes she thought she had, that meant she had been unconscious for more than 20 minutes, and it was getting on a couple of hours for the Colonel, that wasn't good. Once she reached him she was going to have to try waking him again. She was just getting through the ring when she heard him groan.

She hurried to him to stop him moving but by the time she got there he was already propping himself up. "Colonel" she reached for him "Oh thank god!" she said under her breath, she was starting to get worried because so far as she could see they were in BIG trouble.

"Carter" he gasped out

"Yep, try to stay put sir, I think your leg is broken"

She moved around him to get a better view as there was a pillar of ice near his head, "No" he said "My leg is definitely broken" he continued before she could start to argue. He struggled to sit up, but ended up at about 45° angle from the floor, he looked around as much as he was able from is present position.

"This is bad, 'cause unless they've redecorated the 'gate room I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." He said, gasping.

She gave him her theory "Daniel must have misdialled." 

"Misdialled?" he said incredulously "You mean this place is a wrong number? Ah, for crying out loud. Where is he?"

"He's not here, Sir, neither is Teal'c." she had checked all the cave, they would not have left their team mates unconscious and just wondered off, and they were not on the floor, so they were not here.

"No, he has to be." He denied what he heard and put his hand to his chest, picking his radio from his vest

She reached out and stopped him "Yeah, I tried that." She explained "You've been unconscious for nearly two hours." She saw him absorb the time loss and then he said

"They came through the 'gate before we did."

"I know that, I also know we're alone here, wherever here is." She sent her gaze around the cavern once more

"Ice." He was still panting from the pain in his leg "Nice." He stated, she took it for sarcasm, of all the things it was, nice wasn't one, why couldn't they be thrown out into a tropical paradise with warm beaches?

She explained about the DHD being missing, and set about immobilising his leg, using some rigid plastic bags from their kits. Teal'c had had the tent on his back, so the chance of making a dry environment was out, she had to cope the best she could, and she HAD to get the Colonel home!

She listened in horror as she worked as he told her of a mission he had been on where he had crashed into the ground after his chute failed. She again cursed the service that would send a man like the Colonel into danger and not help retrieve him, when she heard he had to crawl out solo, nine days it had taken him!

No wonder he was the one person Jonas had ever mentioned by name when he was talking of covert ops, the man was an honest-to-god-hero! She felt another pang of jealousy when he told her the thing that had kept him going was Sarah, his wife, but then she told herself, EX wife… then she told herself to shut up!

She swore at herself when he tried to get up, when he mentioned his butt was freezing to the floor! She had not remembered to knock all the lose ice off him before putting him on the blanket. That was a basic of survival, keep your clothes as dry as possible, knock ice and snow off as soon as you could… HOW could she have forgotten?

She helped him to his feet, taking a look at his backside while she did, yup, slightly damp, SHIT he was going to get frostbite or hypothermia if she didn't start remembering her survival training! And she would not last long without him, she knew if it was just herself she would not struggle, her life so far had persuaded her that she just was not worth the effort. Only lately had the men of SG1 seemed to care enough to start to change that opinion, but it could not change years worth of being told how much better you should be in just a few short months. "Ah, a little paint, a coupla windows, maybe a fireplace in the corner, it'll be just like home." How could he JOKE? This was serious, she had to get him out of here for medical treatment, and he was taking it too lightly! His tone of voice was light, Jesus how bad did it have to get before he stopped trying to cheer HER up?

They had something to eat, and while he made his way about the flat bit in front of the gate she decided to look on top of the large shelf they were resting against, as she was brushing the lose ice that had fallen when the wormhole pulled back to the gate she saw something, something black, buried in the ice. She heard him mumble something, but wasn't sure what it was

"What?" she winced as soon as she said it, not the best way to question a senior officer. He didn't seem to notice her tone or lack of honourific

"I said, you might be able to climb outta here." He shouted up to her, but she only just registered it… she HAD found it, she could see the red bit in the middle! YES! Now all she had to do was chip away the ice around it, she shouted down to tell him the good news.

"Colonel, I've found it!" she had her knife out and was already making inroads to the alien device buried in the shelf.

"Found what?"

It was the DHD!

She started to dig it out and he came up to help her, using his weapon as a walking stick, she noticed that he kept his left arm pressed tightly against his body, but until he actually gasped in pain she didn't realise it could be serious. When he admitted to having bust his ribs too she could have cried!

Oh shit! She knew from experience how much THAT hurt, every breath was agony. How was he keeping upright, never mind climbing! He made another joke while struggling to breathe!  
**  
**They continued chipping at the ice, he eventually made his way back to the floor after a couple of hours, she knew she should have laid herself on something waterproof, she could feel the ice under her legs and backside thawing slightly and leaving her clothes wet, which was not good, but she was still fit enough to dig and if she could get the top free they would be home and not have to worry about little things like hypothermia and frostbite, GOD as much as she hated hospitals, what she wouldn't give to be in a nice warm bed looking at the dull grey ceiling!


	21. Chapter 21

**21**

She hoped he was resting down on the cavern floor, and that he was getting some respite from the pain he was in, but she realised when he shouted her for food that she should have known better. She didn't really need to eat yet, she could work a couple of hours still, it was better that he get the rations as he needed to heal, and she was fine, but when she tried to tell him all this he brushed her off and she knew he was going to order her unless she complied anyway, so she gave in. She made a joke about his cooking and watched him trying to catch his breath as he replied. She was gasping in sympathy with him at times, unable to watch the pain without reaction, so she decided to distract him and explain how she thought the 'gate had jumped. Only noticing after getting most of the theory out that he wasn't paying attention, his movements were getting slow, he was showing all the signs of hypothermia setting in, and she wondered how much longer he could last. He wasn't even shivering a lot of the time, not that she would wish him to shiver, with cracked ribs, but if he didn't shiver he couldn't keep his body heat up. At least he was drinking the heated water, that should help, it was the quickest way to warm up, from the inside.

She decided to get to the conclusion she had drawn, one that supported his theory on them getting rescued, but was worried to notice he seemed less than enthusiastic about it.

They worked on the DHD for several hours, finding a frozen serpent guard in the ice, before he made them break for food again. They had not been at it long, almost the whole of the top of the device was now free of the encasing ice, when he started coughing up blood! She knew his 'cracked' rib was more than cracked, and it had punctured his lung, that's why he was having so much trouble breathing. Thank god they would be home soon! She pressed the address, the gate taking an age to power up for each chevron, as she hit the red button in the centre, there was a whine like a turbine slowing and… nothing. She swore at it!

She had just decided she needed to clear down to ground level to access the crystals when he insisted that they sleep. She didn't want to, but he pointed out that they had been working for 28 hours or so, and that they had both been awake several hours before setting out from the SGC in the first place, so she brushed off what lose ice was in her clothing, ignoring the fact that most of it was soaked anyway, and she made her way to the cavern floor. By the time she got there he had collapsed and was unconscious!

She rolled him onto the waterproof sheet, pulled open the sleeping bags and zipped them together down one side and the bottom, she took off his boots and rummaged in his pack and got out clean dry socks, which she put on him, and then taking off her own boots and changing her socks as well, she lay down and fell to sleep.

She awoke after less than an hour, not knowing what it was that woke her. Then it happened again, he coughed. "Captain. Much as I might otherwise think this is nice…"

"Sshhh, try to sleep." She told him, reassuringly she hoped, but he then said something strange

"Is that what we were doing?" she realised it may look strange, him waking in a double bag with her so close, she tried to explain why she was there

"You were exhausted, you passed out. I just thought we had to combine body heat or we wouldn't make it through the night."

"That's fine, it's just really hard to sleep with broken ribs when someone's lying on you." Oh GOD! Couldn't she do anything right? And he was not angry with her about it, she must be causing him so much extra pain, and he …he…

"Sorry, sorry, sorry." She lifted her head up and put it on his shoulder 

"That's better." He sounded a bit stronger in his voice that time, she told him to sleep and he said goodnight, as she lay back down, her left leg still over his she noticed some… movement… in his groin 

"Oh…Colonel…!" she was shocked, she had almost forgotten the incident when they had thought Daniel was dead, and had put it down to the stress of the situation, but here, now, he was getting harder by the second, and she moved her leg slowly off him

"It's my sidearm, I swear…" she couldn't help it, she giggled! She never had herself pegged for a giggler; well not since her mother had been killed. She was not totally miserable, she could laugh, she just didn't… giggle… but here, in this situation, it was just funny.

"No giggling, please…!" she wasn't sure if he was saying it to make her giggle more, or because the vibration was hurting him, or because it wounded his male pride, but she cuddled up as close as possible without touching him anywhere… sensitive… and put her head back on his shoulder.

"If we don't make it, I won't have any regrets, you?" she meant it, she was not giving up, she was still going to try to get them home, but she was with one of the few people in the galaxy she trusted, in a situation that, if not comfortable, was safe. And dying of cold was like falling asleep she had heard, there were worse ways to go 

"I'll regret dying…" he told her, in typical O'Neill fashion. They slept.

She got up after sleeping a whole ten hours! Damn she must have been tired! The Colonel did not wake up and so she went to work on digging out the controls of the DHD. She got the panel open in a couple of hours and tried removing the crystals one by one, in order, top to bottom, after each time she put the machine together again she tried dialling. Once she had run out of crystals to try she realised she had no more ideas, the chevrons were still holding a charge, they glowed faintly, but no wormhole, and without… SOMETHING changing, nothing was going to work.

She swore at it again, slapping her hands on the red button, the radio on her vest clicked. She couldn't hear a voice, but it meant he had to be awake so she scrambled down to him as quick as she could.

"I'm usually the first one up." She could vouch for that. When offworld he never slept deeply, the slightest noise and he was awake, that was what had worried her so much about him not waking earlier, but she had slipped her hand inside his jacket and found he was still quite warm, his pulse slow and steady, so she had left him to sleep. 

"You're bleeding internally, I don't know how badly." Not quite true, she knew about the punctured lung and suspected that a couple more places were causing pain, he had only been to pee once since they got there, which could mean renal failure. Kidneys would stop working for a while if they got bruised to badly, usually they started up again before the body poisoned itself, but not always, as she could attest. "Your broken leg may already be frostbitten, I can't tell. I've been trying to warm it up with the last of our cooking sterno but that's about had it." She was feeling that despair clutching at her heart again, there was no positive side that she could see any more, she needed HIM to help her, to give her something to hold onto.

"What's the bad news? Help me up." She noticed he was shivering again, that was good, the body generated internal heat when shivering, as he went to move she held one hand lightly on his shoulder, it showed how hurt he was, that light touch seemed to immobilise him.

"No, Sir, you need to heal. That's an order." Worth a try, she thought.

"I give the orders around here." The stubborn…MALE… if that lung collapsed fully there was a chance that blood would leak into the other lung from where the bronchial tubes met, then he would die… FAST!

"Not Doctor's orders." No reply, he could be closer to death than she thought, one of the signs of hypothermia was sluggish thoughts, if he couldn't remember that she was not a medical doctor then he was in worse shape than he looked. She took the pan of water off of the cooker, she had kept topping it up with ice and having it boil as near to his immobilised leg as possible. It was about 50°, it should help his body to work towards healing and heating itself. "I want you to drink as much of this as you can. Once that sterno dies, we won't be able to thaw any more." She held it to his lips, watching as he managed to drink a little, not enough. She needed him to drink! "I should have gotten you out of here by now, I'm sorry." She was almost sobbing 

She fed him the rest of the pan of water, and tried to get him to eat one of the energy bars, but he was having problems pausing his breathing enough to swallow, so in the end she gave up on the solids, just glad she had put some warmth back into him.

He passed out again and she headed back to the damn machine… she HAD to get it to work! She spent another hour trying the crystals, this time in pairs, nothing! Time to try the Colonels method, take things simply, follow the power first as that is what seems to be the problem… she followed it through the red one at the bottom, where it then went into the converter… that seemed to be OK, it was humming and a slight vibration could be felt if a finger tip was applied… that then went into that box, with a switch on it… Oh GOD! A RESET button! That would stop the chevrons glowing and allow her to start all over again, thank god! She radioed the Colonel to tell him the news, but he did not answer her, she did not want to spare the time to get down to him, when if she was right, she could have the wormhole open in that time!

The chevrons went out. She pressed the first symbol and this time there was no delay, a satisfying THUNK! As the first one locked. She dialled the other 5 for the destination and as she pressed the sixth she felt the ground shake, this was like going back in time, the whole damn facility used to shake before she got the dampeners fixed after that first mission to Abydos, bits of ice started falling from the roof and she covered her head until they stopped, she pressed the red button, confident that they were on their way home, but again the chevrons lost most of their glow, the shaking subsided and no wormhole formed. She was totally out of ideas.

"Work, ah…work…" she said, but the cold metal stood unresponsive to her plea.


	22. Chapter 22

**22**

She made her way to the cavern floor, she apologised to him, on the edge of tears, and then he said the words she had been dreading.

"Captain, plan B, go." He whispered. He had stopped shivering again she noticed, he needed her, she was the only source of heat left in the cavern!

"No, Sir…" she didn't want to leave him, though she did not want to watch him die either.

"Sam, I'm dying." For the first time he seemed to accept the situation, and it almost broke her heart, especially as he called her Sam, that was the first time he had called her by her given name, and the tone of his voice touched something within her "Follow my order, please." 

"Sir…" she objected

"Please." Maybe he did not want her to see him die either, after all he knew her well enough by now to know she would no longer try if he died, she would just give up.

"Yes Sir." She said, and gathered all the food and a canteen of water, then she realised, she couldn't do it, she couldn't leave him without anything, so she split the food and left it beside his left hand with his canteen.

She headed for the small cleft in the ice that daylight shone down most of the time.

It took her two hours to get within sight of sky, every step a struggle, about half way up she had had her last contact with her CO, he had made her cry with his message of "It was an honour serving with you" she had started moving again after a minute, but she kept replaying it in her mind. As she broke through the thin layer of snow that filtered the light she radioed him again, with no reply, she went onto the surface and looked around. Her heart dropped, there was no sign of civilisation, she headed back to the tunnel, again she tried the radio and again she got no reply, she tried to shout to him, nothing.

She grabbed her pack and turned inside the tunnel, trying to keep her footing so she could let herself down backwards, she slipped and fell, landing less than 2 feet away from the sleeping man at the end of the painful journey down.

She crawled over to him, whispering his rank, he seemed to know someone was there and said "Sarah"

She remembered him saying that she had been the one thing to get him home before, so she said "I'm here Jack" and told him he could sleep when he told her he was cold.

She noticed within the hour that his body was no longer giving off any heat that she could feel, she quickly put her hands inside his jacket and felt under his arms, he was freezing. She did not want to be left alone! And remembering basic survival training she quickly opened his jacket, took hers off and her t shirt and lifted his shirt up, putting as much of her skin against his as possible, wrapping them both in the sleeping bags and putting her Jacket over the bag!

He started to warm slightly, and she knew the next best place for her to get him warm was… his… damn this was no time for modesty! YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO! She thought to herself, whether it was ice packs or heat, the body's best place for temperature regulation was the groin. She got her knife out and cut around the trouser leg above the plastic splint, a making sure not to pierce the plastic, then she split up the seam and took it off his left leg, only down to his knees, she stripped her own bottom half down to her knickers and clasped his left leg in between both of hers, laying slightly on top, after half an hour of this he started shivering again. The manuals all warned that the person giving heat had not to stay too long in close contact with the person receiving, in case the drain got too much and they both went into shock, or hypothermia. But she found she could not remove herself from him, though she knew it was killing her she kept giving him whatever heat she could. His body reacted again to her closeness, but she knew that he was thinking of his wife now, and even if she had been tempted, she could not take advantage of him in that way.

The recovery team found them just as she was slipping into a sleep she was not sure she could wake from. They wrapped her jacket back around her and put her into a stretcher with thermal blankets and wraps, warm ones! Dry ones! She tried to pass on the medical information about the Colonel only to hear Uncle George! She thought of how he would have loved the trip through the 'gate. It had been a while since he flew a bird and the thrill was even greater than pulling Gs in a F-111A as he had done when he was her fathers WSO.

She woke on the flight home, Janet and Daniel by her side while further down the plane she could see Uncle George and Teal'c and a nurse. Daniel kept trying to tell her something about a second 'gate but all she could think of was they were on a plane, their injuries must be worse than she thought if they had to fly them out of the mountain. And in a plane! Not a chopper, god what was wrong with him? With her? she couldn't think and all she wanted was a hot water bottle and a gallon of coffee, but Janet kept saying something about having to be warmed up slowly, or … something… heart?… could go wrong.

Janet left her and Teal'c approached, she drifted out of consciousness after saying hi.

Hours later she was in the SGC infirmary, looking at that grey ceiling she had wished for, she felt warm, and drowsy and…drugged. Janet came up to her and brushed her hair back from her face. "Glad to see you decided to stay with us" she said…

The Colonel! She sat straight up and immediately regretted it, after throwing up in the basin Janet held for her she decided to take it a bit slower, she looked to her right and saw Janets office, to the left, another bed and a covered set of legs one with an obvious cast on it, she sat up with Janet helping her and could see his hands on top of the sheet, they were still. She had never seen his hands when they weren't twitching or messing with something, even when the rest of his was still his hands clenched and unclenched, even in sleep.

"The Colonel?" she asked

"Sedated" Janet told her, "he came to a while ago and was a bit disorientated, so after doing his stats we put him back to sleep"

"And me?"

Janet smiled at her "you will be fine Sam, you saved his life you know? If you hadn't done what you did he would have been dead before we reached him" she dozed off for a while, twenty minutes or so by the clock on the wall, as soon as she woke again she looked straight over at her companion and his hand had start to move, he was waking up.

"Doc!" came a whine from the next bed "Need to get up" Janet was still stood next to her, she rolled her eyes at Sam and clipped the board she had been writing on onto the bottom of her bed and stepped around it to his bedside.

"Why do you need to get up Colonel?" she asked

"Need to pee" he replied, Sam giggled at his earthy language

"What did I say about giggling Captain?" he said in a jolly tone.

"You have a catheter in Sir, you shouldn't be moving, you don't want us to have to re-inflate that lung again do you?"

"I don't want a damn tube in my … I can go to the bathroom myself" he amended what he was going to say, she wasn't sure if it was because she was there or because Janet was, or both, Janet looked at her again, Sam giggled once more.

"Captain!"

"Yes sir, sorry sir!" she replied.

"Get me a damn bottle!" he shouted at a nurse by the door, Janet waved him off

"Sir, your kidneys are only just functioning again, you know how close it was, now I put that catheter in for a reason, USE IT"

She turned her back and walked away, as she got to her office she turned her head at Sam and winked. Sam grinned back at her, oh well, at least this stay in the hospital wasn't going to be boring.

Daniel turned up within 15 minutes of her waking, Jack was pretending to be asleep, or he was asleep, she couldn't decide which, she asked Daniel to draw the privacy curtain back more on the excuse that she hated talking to the curtain and when he came around she would like to be able to talk to something higher than his knees. Daniel explained fully about this second 'gate and why her attempts to dial home had failed and she REALLY started blaming herself then.

Why the hell had she not realised and tried a different address? How stupid could she get? She was that busy berating herself that she actually didn't notice Daniel had stopped talking. He grabbed her arm, and for once she didn't flinch "Sam!" she looked at him, he had a cut on his forehead, which she supposed must have happened when he flew out of the 'gate, her landing would have been softer than his, he landed either on the metal grate of the ramp or on the concrete floor.

"What?" she asked

"It wasn't your fault" he said

"Then whose was it? I could have had him home!" she was that upset that she forgot that he could be awake and listening "He almost died because I was too stupid to see what was in front of me Daniel"

"Daniel, leave!" the Colonels voice sounded harsh, she was grateful that he was sending Daniel away, at least when he told her that he no longer wanted her on his team she would not have an audience.


	23. Chapter 23

**23**

**Jack**

He woke in the infirmary, surprised. He honestly didn't think he was ever going to wake up again, he remembered Sarah being there, or was it? Now he thought about it, it probably had been Sam, her voice drifted back to him, telling him it was ok to sleep.

Janet was there, she explained about giving him several litres of warm blood by transfusion to bring his body temperature up quickly, and how his lung had finally filled with blood and they had had to drain it, he was glad he missed that! His leg was also in a proper cast. His chest was strapped up and he could not move!

It turned out he had been back in Colorado for a full day by that time and he was worried to hear that Sam was not awake, Janet explained that she had a bad concussion, but he couldn't understand it, she had worked for days on the DHD, if her head was that bad she would have shown signs before.

Daniel had come in and explained about the second 'gate, Teal'c had appeared, wished him well and then stood like a statue at the end of his bed for a couple of hours, Janet had been bustling about, and even General Hammond came to see him.

He overheard the General and Doctor talking, all about Sam trying to warm him past her safe point, something it seemed the Doc had worked out from how they were found. He also heard her say that there was 'nothing to worry about, nothing happened no matter how it looked' but he couldn't work out what THAT meant either. He tried to get up, the ribs protested, but with the drugs he was hooked up to it made it seem like a dull ache after the last few days, the largest male nurse he had ever seen walked in and told him to lay down again, and Janet introduced him as her 'Colonel buster' she told the mobile mountain that he was not to shift off his bed and left looking satisfied.

Within two hours he had conned the poor lad into allowing him to sit up so he could have a drink, Janet walked in just as he was gasping for breath and gave the young lieutenant a dressing down for helping him. She had then got her big needle out and injected something into the IV and he knew nothing else for a while.

He woke up and his bladder was bursting, he knew he had a catheter in but he was not going to pee down a tube into a bag! He shouted for the doctor and was pleased to hear a familiar giggle coming from the next bed. He told her off, as he had done back in Antarctica, and made her giggle once again. Women who giggled usually annoyed the hell out of him, it was a sure sign of an empty head.

The head that was giggling on the other side of that curtain couldn't be called empty, she had single handedly fixed a DHD, they had tested it by connecting to the land of light before moving it, according to Daniel. He had a feeling that Sam was going to blame herself for her failure to realise what had happened, and he hoped it could be postponed until he could move off the damn bed before she found out.

Of course he dozed off and Daniel came in and told her what had happened before he could shut him up! She was upset, for a second as he woke he got confused, he thought it was Sarah whose voice was full of tears. He quickly shook it off and told Daniel to leave, rather harshly, he gave him a nod as the young man turned back at the door, to let him know he wasn't upset really.

He rolled to his side, THAT hurt! He could see she had rolled onto her side so she was facing away from him, and her shoulders were shaking with crying, but she never made a sound, he could see the strip of skin at the back of the gown and he longed to rub her back and hold her, comfort her.

"Captain" he said, she ignored him and he hated that! "CAPTAIN" he repeated, she looked around at him and tears were rolling down her face, she still made no sound.

He grabbed the safety bars on the bed and twisted them until they disengaged and fell down, he swung his legs off the edge, one of which of course wouldn't bend, and pulled the IV tubes out of the back of his hand, throwing them away. He also reached under his gown and removed that other tube, he had had practise escaping from wards before so he could do it without causing himself any injury or pain.

He staggered the two steps needed to be at her bed and he grabbed her hand tightly, "You saved my life! Don't worry about all the things that you did wrong, or didn't think of, or that could have been! YOU saved ME" he put every ounce of sincerity at his disposal into the words, he needed her to see that she was not to blame. No one can think of everything, and she was as close to perfect as was humanly possible as far as he was concerned. Even with her eyes full of tears she was beautiful, and he hated crying women!

"I could have had us home earlier Sir, I should have…"

"You could have been like me and been bloody useless" he interrupted her, shaking the hand he held in his grip. "and you had a concussion and still managed it all!"

"No sir, I didn't have a concussion" she looked puzzled at him

"Janet says you do/did… whatever"

"Oh! I must have got that when I fell back down to the cave from the surface, no sir, I can't blame the fact of me not seeing such a simple answer on a concussion, I didn't have!"

"It wasn't so simple, no one would have found us if you had not fixed the DHD and caused the vibration that Daniel felt. We have never heard of a planet with two gates before, why the hell should you think that WE would be the first?"

She opened her mouth to say something but he leant over and gave her forehead a quick peck, stunning her into silence "Thank you, for saving US" he whispered… he heard heels clicking on the floor, SHIT! He was in so much trouble, sure enough the mighty midget came around the corner and blew her top!

"COLONEL! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" he looked at Sam and grimaced,

"Showing my arse to everyone behind me!" he said as he hobbled back a step, "I'm sure you only use these gowns to embarrass us" he winked at her as she lay on the bed and got a tentative smile. He settled into the chair at the side of his bed, he couldn't' get back onto it if he tried, so he didn't try.

She drew the curtain between Sams bed and his and with the aide of the mountain she put him back to bed, but he drew the line at having the catheter and IV reinserted, he had proved he could get up, and the IV was just a convenient way of her shutting him up, if she had to stab him ever time she would leave marks.

He asked her to draw back the curtain once he was settled so he could see Sam and talk to her, and was a bit annoyed when Janet asked Sam if it was OK before doing it, but then, she may want her privacy, god knows she hadn't really had any for days, but she agreed. They talked for a while about this and that and he saw her slowly fall back to sleep. He rested back in bed, content to watch her as she rested.


	24. Chapter 24

**24**

It took a full three weeks before Napoleon would let him out of the infirmary, not because of the leg, which he could understand, but because of the ribs. She said the exercise he had done while injured had made… actually he zoned out as she had tried to explain it, anyway she refused to let him home for a full three weeks! Daniel in that time had gone to help another SG team to decipher a temple that seemed to be abandoned and dedicated to Apophis, hopefully it would give them an address to try for another home of his so they could recover Skaara. Teal'c had gone along as body guard as the team that originally found it was a first contact, not a long stay team, as soon as SG11 came back from the ruins they were at they would take over from Daniel, but anyway until he got that damn cast off his leg for good he wasn't going anywhere offworld.

The day she told him he could go home she offered him a removable cast, this would cut down recovery time as the muscles in the leg would not atrophy as much if he could do gentle exercise, and from long experience he knew not to push that sort of recovery, he went to have it fitted and came back to a welcome surprise, Sam was sat there, in civies, with a wheelchair.

"Whatya doin?" he asked as he swung himself into the room, using just one elbow crutch to help himself along.

"Janet said you are free to go, so I thought I could give you a lift home, make sure you had some food in and things, rather than make you stay on base" now THAT sounded like a plan! He asked her to go get his clothes from his locker, and his wallet, keys and things, and she gave him a huge smile and went out into the corridor. He knew he had not chance at all of getting his jeans on, even with the cast being removable the only way he could have done it would have been with her help and he was not going to allow her to help him dress, it was bad enough that he got hard every time he saw her lately, he was not going to embarrass the poor lass by showing her!

He went to the far end of the ward, where a cupboard was set back into the wall and pulled a pair of scrubs out, he took the bottoms and with a little help from a tray of sharp implements cut the right leg off, he would be cold on the way home, it being winter up in the northern hemisphere, but he wouldn't cause Sam any problems.

By the time she returned he had managed to pull them on, just, and he quickly got his top half sorted while she stood at the other side of the curtain.

"I have your meds sir anti-inflammatories and pain killers," she called through the curtain, yeah cos he took pain killers when he had a choice, he would wait a couple of months then hand them into his local pharmacy for disposal as usual, though he would take the anti-inflammatories as they would help him recover quicker.

He swung his leather Jacket over his shoulder and stuffed his wallet and keys into the side pocket, he rolled his jeans up and plonked himself down in the wheelchair, and put the roll on his knees.

"Lead on McDuff" he said, and she pulled back the curtain and gave him another huge grin, Napoleon was behind her, and gave him lots of instructions on do's and don'ts, some of which he would actually obey, though the one ' no beer' had a snowballs chance in hell of being obeyed.

His blonde chauffer drove him to the elevator and then through to the second one, and as they hit the top level he could feel the wind howling, even half a mile back inside the mountain. "If you stay here sir, and give me the keys, I'll go get your truck and bring it to the entrance" he looked at her.

"My truck? My Keys?" he asked as if he had no idea what she was talking about

"Yessir," she said "I only have a small car, we can't get you in with your leg in a full length cast, you are too tall, your truck has loads of leg room, you can probably even sit in the front seat" he looked at her again, and then looked at the airmen at the security desk.

"You are NOT driving MY truck Captain. NO ONE drives that truck except me!" she just stared at him and then said.

"Fine sir" she turned the wheelchair about and headed back towards the lifts.

"Where are you going Captain?" he asked

"Taking you back to the infirmary, Sir" she positively spat the title at him.

"I can manage in your car Captain, don't worry I can remove the cast until I get home"

"I didn't come in my car sir," she answered "I came on my bike because I knew I had to drive you home"

"You drove a bike in THAT weather?" he asked "Look Captain, it's not that… that"

"I understand sir, you don't trust me to drive your truck, I would probably feel the same about allowing you on my bike" she was hurt, he could hear it in her voice, and it wasn't that he didn't trust her, it was… actually he wasn't 100 sure WHAT it was, it was just that it was HIS TRUCK.

They reached the elevator and she pressed the button to call it, he sighed, reached into his pocket and got the keys out, and tossed them in the air. She made no move to catch them. "Ok, you win," he reached over and picked them up and held them out to her "I'll let you drive my truck" the elevator door opened and she pushed him inside "Captain! What are you doing? Take me home!"

"I'll call you a cab later sir, I'm sure you will trust them to get you home" oh shit he had really hurt her feelings now, she was sulking, he thought of ordering her to take him home, but he somehow knew that would be a mistake.

"Sam," he reached over and grabbed one of the hands holding the wheelchair and kept hold of it when she tried to wriggle free "SAM! I'm sorry, I know I'm a pain in the arse" he added a whine to his voice, the one she smiled at when he used it on Janet over the past few weeks "But… It's my … TRUCK"

He felt her hesitate and then she pressed the door open button, and wheeled him back out. He held up the keys again and this time she took them. "So can I ride your bike when I get the cast off?" he asked, she laughed and left him at the desk without an answer as she went outside to get his truck.

"Close call, sir" the young SF said "She almost broke my friends hand when he tried to stop her parking her bike inside this morning, NO ONE touches her bike!" he indicated with his head and Jack turned to see a huge monster parked against the tunnel wall, now THAT was a bike!

"Jesus! Is that hers?" he asked and received a nod, he was learning things about his 2IC all the time, she must be a real speed freak to need that much power, because he doubted she was the sort to have a top line bike so she could show it off, no she was sensible to the nth power in her cars, that bike had to be love!

He envisioned her in tight leather pants and a jacket like the one he wore when he was out on his bike in Minnesota, and he was glad he had the roll of fabric in his lap, he just had to hope there was as much room in them when he stood up as when he had put them on, otherwise he would cause her problems again. He recited hockey scores until he heard the engine of his truck pull to the massive door and wheeled himself towards it, the young SF offered him a hand but he knew he had to turn it down, the young man would be in serious trouble if he moved off his post, and Jack gave him a warning look to remind him of that fact. Halfway to the outside she met him and took over pushing

"Nice ride" she commented, on his truck "bit of a waste if you are only using it to come to work and back"

"Have you seen the beast YOU rode in on?" he asked pointing his thumb back over his shoulder

"That's a BIKE though," she said as if that explained it "nice isn't it? I have a couple of others at home, a classic Yamaha and an older HD but when I saw that I had to have it"

"Doesn't look much like a Harley though" he said, and he was right, he had had a few in his time and it had none of the classic looks that shouted its make to you

"It's a brand new model, less than six months off the line, the VR1000, its really a track bike, but it handles the mountain road as if it was born to it," he looked up at her, her expression was one he had never seen before, she really did love her bikes! Her eyes were wide and she was speaking with enthusiasm, now he loved his truck, but he couldn't tell you all the ins and outs of it… he knew the HP, he knew the engine size and how many pistons it had, but the specs she was reciting… well at least she was happy.

They got to his truck and she opened the front passenger door, it was then he realised just how far off the ground the seat was, she helped him to his feet and then with a hand under his shoulder virtually lifted him in single handed, he grabbed the O'Jaysus handle and slid across until he was fully inside and pulled his leg into the well, she pushed the chair back into the mountain and detached the crutches from the back clips and brought them to the back doors, and threw them on the seat.

"Belt on?" she asked as she fastened herself in, he wriggled around so he could sit straighter and pulled the belt on, she waited until she heard the click before she pulled out into the early evening


	25. Chapter 25

**25**

**Sam**

One more word and she would have left him there in the mountain until he was well enough to drive himself! The damn cheek of the man as if she couldn't drive anything he could! Or fly come to that! It was only because she partially understood his feelings for the damn vehicle that she forgave him, though it wasn't as if it was a bike! It was just another car, and a big honkin' gas guzzler at that!

She drove him home, and pulled in front of the neat building she had admired so much when he had held Daniels wake in it. Though she did not wish to remember that. She steadied him as he swung down from the truck a bit too fast and got his crutches, and helped him to the door, without trying to look like she was helping him. He almost went crashing when he went for the first of three steps up to the porch and a gust of wind came howling around the corner of the building, she managed to place her braced body in the way and stop him falling, just!

He grunted a thanks and got up the other two steps without a problem, waiting for her to open the door as she still had his keys in her hand. She opened the door and swung it wide and stepped back to allow him in first.

Daniel had been in the week before to get rid of the food in the fridge and air the place, so all that was needed was a little grocery shop, she thought. She watched him swing himself straight into the kitchen and open the fridge, she was about to remind him it had been cleared when he shut the door, beer bottle in hand and twisted off the cap, throwing it in the general direction of a bin and took a swallow that emptied half the contents. He sighed and then seemed to remember she was still in the hall. "Want one?" he gestured with his half empty bottle.

"No thanks sir, I have to go get you some food in, and Janet said…"

"She always does" he drank the second half of the bottle without pause and reached for another. This time he put it on the shelf that lead to the living room and headed out of the kitchen to sit down. Picking the bottle up once he dropped one of the crutches on the floor by the sofa.

"You don't have to do any shopping or anything Carter" he said, "I have everything I need in there, take the truck home with you, I can't drive it for a while" he sounded…defeated, down, she wasn't sure HOW to describe him, but there was something about his tone, she didn't recognise… wait … it was the same tone he had used when he told her he was dying.

She stepped into the kitchen herself and opened the fridge, beer, about two dozen bottles, nothing else, she checked the cupboards, a couple of packets of breakfast cereal, one tin of soup and a can of tuna, and no matter how many cupboards she opened she found nothing else. Not even a jar of instant coffee.

She stepped into the living room and he looked up from the photo he had in his hands, it was a classic school photo, head and chest on a none descript background, of his son, exactly as he looked when the crystal entity copied him, the Colonel looked…old…older than he had even when he was unshaven and freezing to death, and she wondered if he had welcomed the thought of joining his son, somewhere deep in his soul.

"Bye Carter" he said in dismissal, but she sat at the side of him, being careful of his cast and took a swig out of his new beer bottle, that he had opened but not started.

She hated beer, much preferring soft drinks, another aspect of 'her control issues' according to Janets friendly shrink she even made the drinks sugar free, so she was never on a sugar high! But she needed something to allow her to stay and drinking was a sure fire way of stopping him from kicking her out. He reached over to the far side of the sofa, where a phone sat on a table, he opened the draw and pulled out some menus, and spread them on his leg.

"What you want for dinner then?" he asked

"Janet said high protein for a while so how about I go get us some steaks in an hour and we can have steaks, potatoes and corn?"

"Can't light the grill in this weather," he pointed to a brick built barbeque on his patio

"I can cook them on the stove in there" she said "and I can nuke the potatoes, I saw a microwave, and corn is easy" he gestured to the menus on his thigh,

"THESE are easy, come on pick one, by the time you've eaten you will be fine to drive then you can get home"

"I can get home anyway," she said "My new place is only a couple of miles away, and a bit of wind isn't going to hurt me, I just thought you would like some company" she didn't actually want to go home, all that was there was a ginger cat that had adopted her when she moved in, that she called Schrödinger and a couple of pot plants, that were dying, probably because she had bored them to death talking to them!

"I…I'll leave you to it sir" she dropped the keys on the coffee table and got her coat on as he managed to make it to the steps out of the living room.

"If you want to stay, I'd like that steak" he said holding a hand slightly towards her, she looked at him and saw warmth returned to his eyes, and something she couldn't identify, and she took her coat off again, "have your beer, we can watch the Simpsons episodes I missed and then you can do some shopping, if that's ok?"

She sat down as he picked a couple of remotes up and switched on the telly, she had never seen the Simpsons, though he kept talking about them at work, maybe it was time she actually watched an episode.

She couldn't drink the beer, and when he went for the bathroom she emptied it down the sink, he knew she had, of course but was good enough not to blame her for the waste. He told her the best place to shop for steaks, a small mom & pop store a mile or so in the opposite direction from where she lived, and they had fresh fruit and veg as well as meat for sale she got the makings of a salad as well as the rest of the planned menu. Then she went to the next shop for milk, coffee, sugar, bread, butter, some diet sodas for herself and got some bits she needed for herself when she went home, shampoo, conditioner and as she was due on by the end of the week, some 'sanitary products' as her father always referred to them. It was the only memory of her father that made her smile, when he blushed as he mentioned buying them for his daughter, but he used no euphemism as some men did, just a generalization and red to the roots of his receding hairline.

She unloaded the truck and set the alarm and put the two huge bags that she had bought on the kitchen table, she took her own small bag from the top and put it under her coat on the hall table for when she left, she was going to walk home and catch a taxi to work the next day, and get her beloved bike home where it belonged, before some jarhead bumped into it with one of the small jeeps they used to transport VIPs from the car park to the security near the lifts.

Dinner was a success, or at least SHE thought it was and he certainly didn't complain as he even took over half the salad from the bowl, she, of course, only ate what she had to, never having been that bothered about eating for eatings sake, and he continually complained about how his steak was almost three times the size of hers, and she needed something substantial to eat. She ignored him after telling him once that she was fine, and continued to eat her meal. Afterwards he told her there were still another two episodes that he had taped, and asked her if she wanted to watch them with him, she looked at her watch and the dark sky and decided not to… to be perfectly honest, even though she had laughed at a couple of lines, she didn't see the attraction in watching it. Cartoons were for children, but she did smile at him as he laughed at it, some children were older than she was!


	26. Chapter 26

**26**

She went to see him as soon as she finished work the next day, and this time allowed him to push her into ordering food in, as a thank you for shopping for him and making dinner the night before, and for not crashing his truck, he added slyly on the end. She had taken it on his insistence the night before and was determined that after the meal this time she would walk home, she wanted her bike back!

She asked if there was anything he needed and it turned out he said he needed toiletries, she scouted around the house quickly avoiding his bedroom and made note of other things he was missing, and nipped back to the same shop as the day before and got soap and razors for him, she also got shampoo as she had noticed he was running a bit low in the guest bathroom she had looked into, when she went to check on brands, and toilet paper and wash powder, dish powder and handwash for the kitchen.

She bet the delivery boy by less than five minutes and rushed to the door before he got to his feet with a "I'll get it" she paid for dinner and turned to see him scowling at her, what had she done now?

"I said I would get dinner!" he told her, she shrugged her shoulder "don't worry, you are going to pay" meaning of course that he could give her the cash she had just handed over, but as she headed into the kitchen to get the plates he put his arms on her shoulders and breathed into the back of her neck

"And how am I paying for it?" he asked. A shudder went straight down her spine! She jumped and her voice must have gone up a full octave as she squeaked out

"CASH, I meant Cash!"

He looked at her and that indefinable element was back in his eyes, only this time she thought she knew what it was, and she was definitely feeling uncomfortable even thinking that he could be lusting after her, she was unsure, unsteady, unready! She put the plates on the table at opposite ends and when he moved to sit next to her as he had the evening before she remembered she had to feed the cat and left. She heard him swearing at himself as she walked away from the house, leaving her bag with her keys and purse in it, in the house without realising.

She was almost home when a taxi pulled up beside her and the rear window rolled down. "Carter get in" he said, opening the door while the vehicle was still moving.

"That's fine sir, I only live around the corner now"

"And how are you planning to get in? Or on base tomorrow?" she realised what he was talking about, and turned to him as the car rolled to a stop.

"Thank you for bringing my bag" she said holding her hand out.

"I didn't" he replied "I want you to come back and finish dinner and you can pick your bag up from where you left it"

She didn't even have her lock picks on her! She would have to damage something to get in or return with him to his house as he wanted. She thought about it quickly noticing that he was watching her closely, she sighed and nodded and got into the front seat so he had room for the cast.

"Back where we came from" he told the driver, who shrugged and gave her a wink.

They nuked the meal in the microwave and due to her knowing a few tricks that he didn't it didn't end up as a solid hot blob that he said he expected from that machine, they sat a couple of seats apart, but not at opposite ends of the table, and he asked her how much everything had come to so far. He hadn't enough cash in the house so gave her his PIN number and card and told her to draw what he owed her and enough for him to live off for a couple of weeks when she went near a bank.

She must have looked surprised at the level of trust he was displaying, because he pointed out that he trusted her to keep him alive, he could trust her with his cash! She almost started crying again, even when they were engaged Jonas had not allowed her to draw his money. Damn bloody hormones! Why couldn't have he been released last week, or even next week!

As she was leaving she went to the hall table for her bag, it wasn't there, he pulled it out of a voluminous inside pocket of the jacket he had had on earlier, he HAD brought her bag for her, he had lied to get her to return, and if she had said no he would have given her it, she wasn't sure whether to be angry he lied, or pleased that he came after her to get her to return. As she got her coat, he balanced himself against the door jamb and held it up for her he pulled her back towards him once it was on and kissed the back of her neck, and whispered

"Thank you for coming back" he let go immediately and made his way into the room, she walked out the door and had not gone ten paces when he was there shouting her back.

He held out his keys "You forgot the truck" he said

She explained about her bike and he insisted she call a taxi home, even thought she WAS a Captain in the Airforce, and he had seen her kick that mongul lords arse, he wouldn't have it, and he grabbed her bag and wouldn't let go until she agreed. She could have got free, but if she was honest, she liked the fact he was looking out for her, so she played his silly tug-of-war and then gave in.

Next day she came again straight from work, she went straight into the kitchen to get a soda and shouted into the living room asking if he needed any shopping or any help with the housework. He shouted back, insisting there was nothing she needed to do and she was disappointed in not being able to help, but she finished her soda and said she would se him the next day and headed for the door. He was there first and his jaw opened when he saw her.

She knew she FELT good when she was wearing her bike gear, but this was the first time she had ever taken notice of other peoples reactions, and his reaction was immediate and obvious. "How the hell did you get into THEM?" was he drooling? He definitely licked his lips a couple of times and shoved his hands into his pockets, forgetting that he had crutches on his arms and almost killing himself by falling over and impaling himself on one, she noticed he was not wearing the cast.

She couldn't help but laugh at his antics, and helped him steady himself and moved him away from the door. "No Carter! I mean it…" she turned to him puzzled, mean what?

"How the hell do you get into them, there's no…" he gestured to his front then thought better of it and said "fly"

"Side zip sir" she said and again headed to open the door

"You can't do this to me!" he leaned against her holding her to the door by sheer weight "you can't walk in here looking like sin and then leave" what the hell was he talking about, they were her motorbike pants for gods sake, not something she threw on to torture him, surely he had seen her come to work in them before, but then maybe not, she could probably count on one hand the number of times they had arrived together. She felt him bury his face in her neck again, only this time he WAS kissing her his arousal pressed into her at exactly the right height for penetration, she started to feel wet.

"Sir, please, don't" she said and he stood back a little, keeping a hand either side of her so she could turn around and look at him, but not leave. She didn't want to look at him, she didn't trust herself, the night before it had taken more than one cold shower to allow her to sleep, she had been that worked up, and she had woken herself twice with erotic dreams that had left her panting and slightly unsatisfied, if she wasn't a good catholic girl she could have been tempted to take matters into her own hands, but her self discipline, together with an absolute lack of guidance from a close female figure who wasn't a nun (they all made it out to be a major sin and no one had ever told her otherwise) meant that that option was one she had abstained from for a long, long time.

"Sir, please, let me go home" GOD she was pathetic! If she wanted to leave she could, he was injured and no matter how much better than she it would only take one kick and she would be free, and no one would blame her, she could have him up on charges for what he had done so far, never mind if she had to actually injure him to get free, he ran his nose through her hair, breathing deeply, smelling her shampoo and then his lips went back to her neck, he nibbled on her pulse point and she could feel herself getting wetter.

"Please, stop" she whispered and he did! He pulled back and she was almost sorry he had done. He lifted his hands from the door and released her, she moved to open it and once again he stopped her.

"Look at me" he said, she stopped, and after a couple of seconds she turned, but couldn't bring her eyes to his face "Sam, look at me" she tried, honestly she did, but she was too ashamed of her own reaction, and of her fear to face him, his hand grabbed her chin and slowly he raised her head, she was only two inches shorter than him in the boots she wore for the bike and so he could look her straight in the eye by bringing his chin down a little. She flinched away from his gaze and he placed a hand to each side of her face and brushed her lips with his softly. "You are beautiful, and clever and compassionate and everything wonderful and so hot! I know I am nothing compared to you, but you must know that every man you meet is in love with you," his lips brushed hers again "and that includes me"

She had no idea what to say, here was a real life American Hero telling her he was nothing compared to her, and that she was beautiful! She was not falsely modest, she knew she wasn't ugly, but she couldn't be classed as beautiful! Her thoughts, or a part, must have shown in her eyes, because he laughed softly and said "you have no idea, just how hot you are do you?"

She shook her head in denial, not that she cared, so long as HE thought she was hot she felt as if it was possible, still there was that other thing he said, she raised her hand and ran her fingers through the brown unruly hair, hints of grey showing in places and said "if you need to see hot, you just have to look in a mirror sir," GOD she had wanted to do this for sooo long! And he moved his head from side to side, guiding her fingers to the back of his head and the nape of his neck, when they landed he shuddered almost violently and his eyes devoured her. He kissed her again, and there was nothing sweet and soft about it this time!


	27. Chapter 27

**27**

**Jack **

She was soft and sweet and so so beautiful and she tasted so good when his tongue swept into her mouth, he only pulled back because he had to breathe and he wasn't even sure it was worth it! Hmmm kiss Sam or breathe… hard choice, and if not for the fact that if he stopped breathing he would eventually stop kissing her, he wouldn't have. He leant against her again, pressing her and those sinful leather pants into the door. Trying to keep his passion in check slightly, after all he had been warned that she had been attacked and all her reactions to date screamed rape. He didn't want to do anything to cause her to remember that past time, as a mood killer for him it was working, if he triggered it in HER she may never trust him again. He drew back a little and softened the kiss so he wasn't trying to eat her whole, his whole body shaking with the effort.

He put his hands inside her open jacket and onto her narrow waist, moving them slowly in circles, as they kissed. He managed to touch the underside of one breast before he felt her starting to think again, and stiffen up against him, he dropped his head into her neck again and once again nibbled softly on the side of her throat, bringing a groan from her. He knew now that he only had this one chance, if she escaped before he could convince her they should be together then she would not return. She would think herself into a panic and may even blame herself and leave the programme, he had to convince her that they were right together.

She had already told him she thought he was hot, though god only knew WHY! He had to use everything he knew, everything he had ever heard of to bring her to a peak where thinking just was not possible, if he got her that far he could get her into bed, and once there, he knew he could satisfy her as no other man could.

He slipped her jacket off her shoulders and allowed it to fall to the ground, those damn pants were going to be a problem, they couldn't be that easy to get off, they were so tight! But he kept to his plan and using his mouth and his hands he slowly managed to get so he was inside her tshirt, with her bra lose and both hands full of her breasts, he paused and squeezed her nipples slightly, not knowing how hard she would consider too hard, he was doing everything soft but firmly. He lowered his head and pulling up the material he latched onto one of her breasts, sucking the complete areola into his mouth and flicking the nipple with his tongue, she held his head to her chest, pushing herself into him further, almost begging him to take more. He put his 'bad' leg between hers and allowed her to relieve some of the pressure that was building by rubbing herself against his leg. God that felt good! It helped that she was also pressing against HIS problem at the same time, easing his ache.

She was panting and he slid her a foot or so along the wall, she moved unwilling to lose his mouth from her breast, he slipped the hand that was not busy to her hip and felt for the zip, wrong hip! He moved to her other breast, and moved that hand to her hip and found the zip and popper. He pulled the waistband to the side and the popper flew open, he then pulled the zip down, pleased to note it was quite long, it almost reached her thigh. That would help. She was wearing nylons under the pants, it made sense, she was not trying to seduce anyone, and they would make getting into and out of the very tight leather a lot easier, he slowly worked his way back to her mouth while his hands tried to get her pants to fall.

He managed to get them almost to her knees before he had to bend once more to her breast to get the extra reach, she was moaning his name by now, and he could smell her arousal and it was making his mouth water! He slipped both hands into the nylons and pushed them and her panties down at the same time, bringing his fingers at last to her moisture, they groaned together as he touched her. He rose back to her mouth and worked his hand along her sex, not pressing too hard, or too soft and bringing her to a peak, he avoided penetrating her with his fingers, leaving that sweet stretch for when he put his throbbing organ into her. She came! Damn she was easy! He had expected her to take a lot more work that that, he kissed her slowly as she came down, and then before she could recover fully he started touching her again, she came again! Damn a multi, he wondered how many times he could get her over the brink at one go, but decided to wait for another time, he held her up against the wall until she started to take her own weight and then he bent down, his bad leg throbbing, but he was sure it was solid enough to take it, that's why he had removed the cast! He was always a fast healer, he unzipped her boots and took them off her, and then lowered the half removed clothes and left them sat in the hall.

He stood and brought both his hands up her sides and took her shirt and bra off, now all he had to do was complete the deal, get her into bed and show her how much better he was than any lover she had ever had before. He unzipped his shorts and kicked off his sandals, he had planned his whole ensemble for easy access, and of course, easy disposal, not only because of his bad leg, though he had not quite planned for this to happen! He unfastened his shirt and allowed it to fall as well, then with them both naked he grabbed her around the waist and manoeuvred her into his bedroom, and onto the bed. She fell gracefully her lower legs hanging over the edge and her feet almost on the floor, he couldn't resist, he HAD to taste her and she tasted so damn good! She stared squirming back onto the bed and he followed, probing her with his tongue and flicking her clit every so often she was moaning and thrashing her head about and crying out to god and to himself, he felt pleased with himself as she came once more, this time no shuddering moan, this time she screamed! He rose up to her, and looked her straight in the face and asked the question "Sam?" her gaze was still unfocussed but she seemed to look at him, and she nodded and he brought himself to her dripping opening and thrust straight in.

She screamed again but this time in pain and he groaned loudly at the same time, she was so tight, so hot, so wet and FUCK she was a virgin! Oh Jesus what had he done? Oh god OH GOD! She was crying with the pain and he was sure something like guilt. Any woman as beautiful as her getting to her age without having had sex HAD to have had a reason and he had just wound her up to the point where she couldn't think and had taken her! He held her tight as she shivered below him, saying he was sorry over and over. How the hell could he expect her to forgive him now? Oh GOD SAM!


	28. Chapter 28

**28**

**Sam**

GOD it HURT! She had, of course, heard about a momentary pain when first penetrated, but she actually believed that all those times that Janet had given her examinations, and her use of tampons would have made the problem less. But it HURT and he was holding onto her and apologising into her ear and he was even crying! No! She had to stop this, it wasn't his fault, she had allowed things to go too far without warning him. Did it hurt the man as he broke through? She had no idea, she knew it was a tender region, of course, and that if aroused it was even more tender, she had to believe that tearing though the skin inside her would have hurt him too! Oh god and it was all HER fault!

Though she had not intended for anything to happen between them when she arrived, she had been aware of every second, and every action, she couldn't pinpoint the exact second that she had decided to go through with 'it' and allow him to continue creating all those wonderful feelings in her, but she did realise by his reaction that he was not only shocked, but blaming himself! She HAD to make him understand, it wasn't his fault at all.

She held his head, trembling with pain, him still inside her and told him it would be OK, that she was sorry and hadn't meant to hurt him, and eventually he raised off her and looked her in the eye.

"What the hell are you apologising for Sam?" he asked his voice rough "for fucks sake I was the one who… who…" he had no idea what to say, she pulled him back down and kissed his face, catching the tears still present on his cheeks.

"I hope that there is something more enjoyable to follow than the last two minutes" she said and he sobbed a laugh into her neck, he kissed her and started moving inside her, slowly and gently and somehow it wasn't enough, she needed more, after that first shock. She started meeting his thrusts, moving to a rhythm as old as time and as natural as evolution she found the perfect speed and penetration for herself and with him allowing her control she brought herself to the edge again, but had no idea how to go over, she couldn't help herself she just repeated

"Jack… Oh GOD… JACK" as he was working himself to release, and he got the hint and put one hand between them while still balancing on the other and keeping the thrusts going and he touched her… right… there! And she was screaming again and shaking, and this time she was crying too, everything overwhelming and too much and just as she was catching her breath again, he came, pumping into her three times, more forcefully than any since that first thrust, and each time she felt a flood of warmth, deep inside her, he collapsed on top of her, still apologising and whispering his love to her. He moved before he became too heavy, leaving her with an empty feeling as he removed his flesh from hers, but he kept both arms wrapped around her and he dragged her out of the wet patch she had been laid in.

She felt safe, and warm, and she hurt… though not so much as before… and she felt… loved! She wasn't sure if he really meant what he had been telling her, but she felt it was sincere as he said it, the light of day would be soon enough to work everything out, she needed to sleep now, she cuddled up to him, as she had in the ice cave, her head this time on his chest without complaint, and she slept.

It was still dark when she awoke, not surprising when she considered it, it couldn't have been much after 19:00 when they had fallen to sleep, she turned slightly in bed and watched the face of the man she loved. She sent a silent apology to her mother, just in case there was an afterlife and she WAS looking over her as the Fathers had always told her they were. He looked younger when asleep like this and he was still! Not a twitch to be seen, only a light snore and the rise and fall of his chest telling her he was asleep. Usually offworld he would not sleep this deeply, always on guard for any sound or movement, it amazed her that he actually bothered to sleep when he seemed more alert than whoevers turn it was to watch. Except maybe Teal'c he may have slept better when Teal'c was watching, not because he trusted Daniel or her less, she realised, but because they had both got experience with attacking camps and so would know what sounds could be mimicked.

She needed the bathroom, no one had ever mentioned how sticky and uncomfortable the aftermath of sex was, they all spoke of the post coital glow and not about the wet patch in the bed and the goo that was at the top of her thighs and still liquid. She looked around, without moving, and saw the second door. She had been in the guest bath when looking at toiletries, and when she had needed to use the facilities herself, but she had never intruded on his privacy, and opened the bedroom door.

She got out of bed carefully, trying her best not to disturb his sleep, but the second her weight shifted from the bed to the floor he was looking straight at her.

"Whatya doin'?" he asked her softly.

"Bathroom" she explained and he pointed to the door she had already noticed, she went in and used the toilet, and contemplated getting a shower, but decided to just clean herself up for now, she would shower once she got home, she used a wash cloth and ran it around her lower quarters smiling to herself as she realised she was washing off one of his unique smells with another. She was still slightly sore, and there was a small amount of blood along with the other fluids on the cloth, but she could live with it, or without it, she thought to herself. She brushed her teeth with her finger and then turned off the light, he looked to be asleep and she wondered if she should leave, but she didn't want to, so she crept back into bed and cuddled up to his side.

"I did wonder which way you would decide" he said as her head came to rest on his chest, at her look he continued "I wondered if you would hate me for what I did and leave, or you would hate yourself and leave, or if you would just leave… or, and this was the most unlikely, you would stay"

She raised herself in the bed until her head was over his and she kissed him softly on the lips "go to sleep Jack" she curled into him again and within seconds she was fast asleep.

The next time she woke, it must have been several hours later, she was no longer cuddled up to him, in fact he was between her legs, waking her with his tongue, doing the same things to her that he had done the night before and bringing her to a screaming climax, this time when he entered her she just felt a slight sting which was overridden immediately by the feel of his hard pulsing organ moving in and out of her, he gave her the same rhythm and strength of thrust as she had managed to evening before and she was soon holding onto the headboard and screaming again but as she tightened internally he groaned and she was afraid she was hurting him. When she managed to voice the question he just said "God NO!" and thrust harder, she deliberately tightened her muscles this time and he totally lost control thrusting into her harder than ever, holding onto her shoulders for extra leverage, "So hot, oh god! So wet! So TIGHT! OH GOD!!" she felt his seed pump into her again and felt a satisfaction she couldn't describe at having made him lose control like that.

Again he collapsed on top of her and again he rolled them both to the side, making sure she was out of any uncomfortable dampness. "I love you, you know?" he told her.

"That's ok, you don't have to say it" she told him, knowing that things said during and after sex were not always entirely true. He grabbed her chin, firmly, not like he had the day before and he jerked her head slightly so she had to look at him

"I LOVE YOU" he said and his eyes! Oh god his glorious eyes! They burned into her very soul. "marry me" he said and her head spun!

Did he say that? Did he MEAN it? What about their careers, they may be able to hide an affair, but marriage? He was everything she had ever looked for in a man, but would he not get tired of her quickly, after all he hated scientists, he had said so, and though she was AF through and through she was first and foremost a scientist.

"I… I…" she shook her head, trying to get the five million thoughts into some kind of order that she could articulate and she saw his eyes close in pain.

"Sorry, forget I said anything" he said dejectedly, she grabbed his face and tried to turn it to her as he had before, but he was a lot stronger than she, so she climbed on top of him and sat straddling his chest.

"Jack, Jack!" he looked at her, the pain still visible but he was retreating, turning cold "I wasn't shaking my head no… I was trying to work out if you meant it, I… I love YOU so much, and I made a promise to my mother, that I would be a virgin when I married, well, as you just asked me to marry you, I guess I can call it close enough, at least it will be my husband who took it." She smiled at him and he grabbed her and dragged her back down under him, and he kissed her thoroughly.

She went into work later that day and by the time she got back to Jacks place he had somehow gone out and bought a ring and booked a hop to Nellis AFB on late Friday evening for them both. They had a Chinese take away and tumbled into bed soon after, two more days and she would be Captain Doctor Mrs O'Neill.


	29. Chapter 29

**29**

She couldn't breathe! He was on top of her! Oh GOD NO! NOT AGAIN! She fought and struggled and for some reason he had forgotten to tie her down this time, she screamed at him that she wouldn't allow it to happen again, she kicked out using her powerful leg muscles to lever herself off the bed and him off with her, as she hit the floor with him under her she woke up!

"Oh god Jack! Oh God!" oh how screwed up could she be? She had just thrown the only man to really love her off herself and onto the floor, she tried to get up, but he had a tight hold of her and wouldn't let go, his arms and legs wrapped around her and he was telling her she was safe, that he was sorry, that he had never meant to hurt her. She shuddered and calmed down, he relaxed his hold as soon as she relaxed her muscles. And while she was shaking still he managed to get them both back into bed and he held her tight to his chest.

"Want to tell me what that bastard did to you?" he asked, gently, she shook her head, "Well, I know better than to wake you like that again" he laughed slightly, "I should just go back to the oral sex should I?"

She looked at him amazed. He wasn't angry, he wasn't worried, he wasn't upset that she had reacted like that? No that wasn't quite true, he WAS upset, but FOR her not AT her, a huge difference. She settled into his embrace again, the one place she felt safe, and he stroked her hair, his heart back to its normal slow rhythm.

"Jonas" she said, eventually

"I guessed" he told her "but I thought you had been raped by the bastard, that's why I was so shocked at you still being a virgin"

"He, he…" her mouth was dry, would he still want her if he found out? That she had been used like that? He had thought she had been raped and had taken a chance on her… she really didn't know what to do.

"S'ok love you will tell me when you are ready" he told her, but she knew she had to tell him before they married, that way if it was too much for him to cope with he could get out before he got in, so to speak.

In a low voice she told him the full tale, from meeting him at Peterson, through losing all her friends and right up to that night. She managed the first meeting fine, but then she sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees and told him of the second one. She held herself stiff as she told him the little she knew of what had happened, and then of her coming around in the hospital and what Janet had told her had happened.

"So you see, he had his satisfaction, he tore my insides to shreds, and left me intact so I could hurt all over again later." She couldn't face him, she couldn't see the disgust in his eyes, she got out of bed and headed for the bathroom, not sure if she needed a shower to wash off the memory, or the toilet to vomit into.

He was there, holding her, magnificent and strong and solid, and he told her he loved her, and that he understood how she felt. She shook her head, he couldn't understand, he raised her face to his own once more and kissed her deeply, he manoeuvred her back to the bed and lay beside her while he told her of his days as a PoW in an Iraqi prison, he didn't go into a lot of detail, but it was obvious that he DID understand her sense of shame and guilt, for something she could not have prevented, and she felt an outpouring of love for this man, who usually kept everything so tightly hidden and was willing to relive his old pain to help ease hers.

She settled into sleep once again when they had talked for a couple of hours, emotionally exhausted, and praying that he would not one day wake to realise what a poor deal he had made, getting only her for all he was giving.

**JACK**

The Fucking bastard! It was a good job he had died as he had because if he had had a body somewhere Jack would have dug him up and put him in a sarcophagus just so he could torture him to death again! He looked at the woman asleep on his chest and wondered at how she had managed to trust HIM of all people after that bastard had done THAT to her!

Jack knew he had a dark side and he knew she now knew for definite that he had been in black ops, how the hell could she trust him after seeing what a twisted sick bastard it had turned Hanson into. Maybe it hadn't been the ops that had twisted him, knowing the way certain higher ups thought it was always possible that the reason they employed him was because he was sick!

There were usually two general types that made it to covert ops, the cold blooded killers, the ones who could do it and even if they screamed through their nights for ever more, would do it again if ordered, he was that type.

Then there were the ones that somehow got into the forces past all the psyc tests and then later were discovered to be unbalanced. Those types were usually sent on solo jobs, not team ones, because they were expected to die quickly. He guessed Hanson was that sort. It was always possible that if it was not for Charlie that Hanson would have been brought into the first Abydos mission. In that case he would have detonated the bomb as soon as he could and everyone on the planet would have died, including Daniel, Kawalsky and Ferretti. Luckily while he had been suicidal at the time, he had still listened to reason and Skaara and the rest of the kids were only really a small part, it was Daniel he had to thank really for saving him from himself.

He stopped thinking of the past and started thinking of the future. His whole plan hinged on the fact that he had been recalled to active duty twice, at least once against medical advice. He hoped Sam would go along with his plan, to get married and keep it quiet until such a time as it was uncovered, at which point they could produce the marriage certificate and he could quit once again, or retire, he didn't really care, because he KNEW they couldn't touch HER!

He knew better than anyone anywhere just how much time she had dedicated to that project and that base, and even if they tried to demote, her she could leave and go into her own business, they would HAVE to employ her, and for a hell of a lot more than an AF Captains salary as well, so they wouldn't do it. It would all fall on him, though he would not tell her that particular part of the plan, and she was sooo worth it! He looked at her again and smiled. GOD how had he got this lucky? And he hoped to god she never realised what a poor deal she got for what she gave.

**Epilogue **

**Mrs Smith's view**

It was a lovely service, a little chapel off the main route, her husband and herself running it, she took the pictures, he said the words, and they had a couple of regulars who would sign as witnesses in case people forgot to bring their own. The couple looked good together, as she remarked to one of the usual crowd, camera in hand. Both tall, both good looking, and both with a slight military air, not that THAT was unusual, with such a large AFB just up the road a ways. He wore a dark grey suit, she a short white dress, and their rings had a strange engraving on them, like a V with a circle underneath it. They kissed with a passion that made HER blush as her husband sealed them together for all time (she was old fashioned like that, didn't believe in divorce, even with a Vegas wedding chapel she hoped it would mean forever).

She snapped away and told them the album would be complete before nightfall, or they could pick it up the next day if they preferred, they told her they would try to make it back that evening, and gave her a $50 tip and asked her to call their cells in a couple of days if they had not been to collect it. "If we haven't got out of bed by that time" the handsome young man told his new wife. She blushed, such a sweet thing to see in this day and age of no shame.

They walked out of the door, in step, showing that they actually WERE both military, there was no trying to fall into pace, it was automatic, and they did it while laughing at something.

"He's a bit older than her" her husband said from behind her as she watched them walk slowly down the street.

"All souls are the same age," she said, "you just have to find the one you have to travel though life with, it doesn't matter what year you were born"

"You're a silly old romantic" he told her, probably for the ten thousandth time since they moved to Vegas and set up the chapel

"And you are the fool who loves me," she gave her usual reply, and closed the doors for the evening.


End file.
